Well this was News -- to me. Maybe it will be for you too. First some background information on the Billionaire Brothers, who treat America's political system as their own personal playground:
Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved
by David Sassoon at InsideClimate News
Reuters -- Feb 10, 2011
The Koch brothers are not run-of-the-mill political opponents. An investigative report last year by the New Yorker magazine on the secretive and deep-pocketed pair have shown them to be "waging a war against Obama." They have bankrolled the Tea Party movement, climate change skepticism and right-wing think tanks, such as the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Center for Policy Analysis.
Through Flint Hills Resources LP based in Wichita, Kan., the Koch brothers provided $1 million in 2010 to the failed effort to suspend California’s groundbreaking 2006 global warming law.
[...]
A SolveClimate News analysis, based on publicly available records, shows that Koch Industries is already responsible for close to 25 percent of the oil sands crude that is imported into the United States, and is well-positioned to benefit from increasing Canadian oil imports.
Funny how the Koch Kansas-based subsidiary decided to cross state lines to dissuade California citizens from taking Climate Change science, as a serious issue ... One Million dollars worth of dissuasion.
Of course that wouldn't be the first time the Koch Oil-magnates have tried to muddy the Climate Change waters:
David Koch on Global Warming: "Don't Worry, Humans will Adapt." Priceless.
by jamess -- Feb 21, 2011
You might say they have a vested interest in the outcome, if Clean Energy ever catches on in a big way.
... about those behind-the-scenes Koch tarry investments:
Koch Brothers Positioned To Be Big Winners If Keystone XL Pipeline Is Approved
by David Sassoon at InsideClimate News -- Feb 10, 2011
[pg 2]
About 80 percent of what the Koch refinery processes is heavy crude from Alberta's oil sands, a company spokesperson told the media last year. The oil that reaches the refinery is supplied through the Koch brothers' Flint Hills operation in Calgary, the company's website says.
[...]
The company says the Pine Bend refinery [near St. Paul, Minnesota] is among the largest processors of heavy crude in the United States. Its various fuel products are distributed via a 537-mile pipeline system in Minnesota and Wisconsin that the Koch brothers also own, as well as via truck and rail.
[pg 3]
Figures on other quantities of tar sands oil that Koch interests handle out of their Calgary operations are not publicly available. According to the Flint Hills Resources Canada website, the Koch Industries subsidiary has more than 90 customers and offers "physical and financial marketing capability related to a large selection of Canada’s crude oil streams."
White House Visit
It is unclear whether the president or his advisers are aware of the extent of the Koch brothers involvement in tar sands imports or have tried to quantify the economic benefit they could derive from the Keystone XL pipeline.
Maybe if Henry Waxman can make the Koch Keystone interest clear -- maybe then the Obama Administration will think twice about giving the project the green light:
Rep. Waxman Again Requests Investigation of Koch Connection to Keystone XL Pipeline
by Stacy Feldman, InsideClimate News -- Oct 18, 2011
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) today renewed his request that the House Committee on Energy and Commerce investigate the role of Koch Industries in the Keystone XL pipeline.
Waxman, the ranking minority member of the committee, made his request in a letter to committee chairmen Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.).
Waxman first asked for an investigation in May, when the committee was holding hearings on the Keystone XL, a controversial Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that would allow as much as 830,000 barrels a day of a particularly dirty form of oil, locked up in Alberta's tar sands, to reach refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
[...]
Waxman cites legal papers that a Koch Industries subsidiary, called Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, filed with the Canadian government, recently uncovered by InsideClimate News, in which the company claimed "a direct and substantial interest" in the Keystone XL.
"There appears to be a direct contradiction between what Koch representatives told me and the assertion by the Koch subsidiary," Waxman wrote. "If members of the Committee were misled by Koch, that is a serious matter that deserves prompt and thorough investigation."
I wish Waxman luck, but I'm not holding my breath, for the GOP to act here.
The way things are going, the way the Koch Brothers think -- that they can buy anything they want -- sooner or later, we may all be working for a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The way things are going ...
The Koch Brothers Million(s) Dollar effort to Halt Progress
by jamess -- Sep 18, 2010
So we have better start minding our P's and Q's -- afterall "it's our own damn fault, if we can't find a job" -- or so says one of the Koch's latest spokesman: GOP Candidate Herman Cain.
Nevermind that Clean Energy tech jobs, ARE the jobs of the Future ... Koch Industries have invested millions, to insure we never make those connections. Their Billionaire lifestyle kind of depends on it.