http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20110210/koch-brothers-positioned-be-big-winners-if-keystone-xl-pipeline-approved - via Solve Climate
The Keystone XL pipeline, awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, would increase the import of heavy oil from Canada's oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built.
The 1,959-mile pipeline would cut through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to refineries in Texas, and crisscross the Ogallala Aquifer, which Americans living in the Midwest rely on for fresh drinking water as well as irrigation.
A Koch Industries operation in Calgary, Alberta, called Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, supplies about 250,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day to a heavy oil refinery in Minnesota, also owned by the Koch brothers. Flint Hills Resources Canada also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, the starting point of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
An unknown amount of company profits — figures are unavailable as the company is privately held — come from the Pine Bend Refinery near St. Paul, Minnesota,
which supplies 30 to 40 percent of Wisconsin's transportation fuel and a large percentage of the jet fuel used at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. 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.
Some see Keystone XL as path to higher gas prices in Midwest:http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/business/local/article_b8ff1bfd-881c-5d67-9553-cb1220c902d2.html