Long involvement in Canada's tar sands has been central to Koch Industries' evolution and positions the billionaire brothers for a new oil boom.
Over the last decade, Charles and David Koch have emerged into public
view as billionaire philanthropists pushing a libertarian brand of
political activism that presses a large footprint on energy and climate
issues. They have created and supported non-profit organizations, think
tanks and political groups that work to undermine climate science,
environmental regulation and clean energy. They are also top donors to
politicians, most of them Republicans, who support the oil industry and
deny any human role in global warming.
What is less well documented are the many Koch businesses that
benefit from the brothers' efforts to push the center of American
political discourse rightward, closer to their own convictions. At the
top of the list are the Koch family's long and deep investments in
Canada's heavy oil industry, which have been central to the company's
initial growth and subsequent diversification since 1959.
Because Koch Industries is a privately held company, the public has
little access to information about the depth and diversity of its
Canadian oil sands holdings. Over the past several months, however,
InsideClimate News has pieced together a rough picture of the company's
involvement in the industry, using published reports from the National
Energy Board of Canada; documents and data extracted from the website of
Canada's Energy Resource Conservation Board; securities disclosures and
filings of Koch businesses in Canada; court documents from an
inheritance battle that pitted Charles and David Koch against their two
other brothers; Canadian and U.S. media reports; company newsletters and
press releases; and two books, one written by Charles Koch and the
other the autobiography of a long-time Koch company director.
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