Koch brothers get rolling on their first tar-sands project

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http://grist.org/news/koch-brothers-get-rolling-on-their-first-tar-sands-project/

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The Koch brothers are currently right on track to become the most dangerous senior citizens in the North American nonrenewable energy game. Considering that that particular arena is currently dominated – as are most lucrative yet morally fraught industries – by white men with Cialis prescriptions, that’s saying something.

In March, it was revealed that Chuck and Dave had quietly acquired leases for between 1.1 and 2 million acres of tar-sands land in Alberta. That makes them one of the largest tar-sands leaseholders in Canada. “Maybe they were planning on converting that property into a lovely nature preserve,” said exactly no one. Surprise, no one! Koch Industries’ Canadian arm, Koch Oil Sands Operating LLC, has started to make arrangements to drill on that land.

The project, slated to begin construction in 2016, is expected to cost $2.2 billion, and would produce 60,000 barrels of tar-sands oil per day starting in 2018.

And that’s just the start. Roxanne Rees, media representative for Koch Oil Sands, confirmed to the Vancouver Observer that the company has other projects in nascent stages of development.