Columbia Journalism Review looks at the Koch brothers, their Canadian holdings, and attempts to intimidate the media from small news sites to giants like Bloomberg and Reuters.
The Kochs and Keystone XL
The article concentrates on a small site called InsideClimateNews. This is what CJR says about InsideClimateNews and Koch’s Canadian holdings
Koch Industries owns an Alberta-based subsidiary called Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, whose website says it is “among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers, and exporters.” According to InsideClimate, it “supplies about 250,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day to a heavy oil refinery in Minnesota, also owned by the Koch brothers,” and “operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, the starting point of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.”
“Although the pipeline, if approved, would increase the supply of oil reaching the U.S., a 2009 market analysis conducted by TransCanada, builder of the pipeline, forecast higher prices,” InsideClimate reported. “The analysis, which TransCanada conducted as part of its Canadian permit application, projected that prices would increase about $3 per barrel as a result of the pipeline,” putting at least a $2 billion in Canadian oil producers’ pockets.
“Given its deep involvement in the Canadian petroleum industry, the Koch brothers’ operation stands to snare some of the windfall,” Sassoon concluded.
Update:
Koch owned Flint Hills Resources is intervenor in Northern Gateway Joint Review