House Republicans are trying to speed up the review process for Keystone XL, the controversial pipeline that would carry oil from Canada’s oil sands all the way down to Texas. This is potentially very dangerous, probably overpriced, maybe unnecessary, and almost certainly advantageous for certain corporate bigwigs. In other words, it stinks of unwashed Koch.
That’s what Rep. Henry Waxman thinks, anyway. He’s asked the House Energy and Commerce Committee to demand more documentation about exactly how the Kochs stand to benefit from Keystone XL. In a letter to the committee, Waxman and Rep. Bobby Rush laid out their reasons for suspecting that the pipeline is laced with Koch:
Koch’s Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota currently processes roughly 25 percent of the tar sands fuel imports to the United States. Koch owns Flint Hills Resources, LLP, in Calgary, Canada, which is “among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters.” Flint Hills Resources also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, where the Keystone XL pipeline will begin. According to the Government of Alberta, Koch Industries has both proposed and producing tar sands projects in the province. The Oil Sands Developers Group also indicates that Koch is a tar sands project developer. Koch’s Corpus Christi refinery is positioned near the end of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and would be a potential buyer for the tar sands crude shipped through the pipeline.
The company says it has "no financial interest" in Keystone XL, and GOP representatives called Waxman’s request “a transparently political stunt.” But realistically, is there anything vaguely gross, dangerous, and oil-related that the Kochs aren’t profiting from?
