Billionaire Koch brothers are big oil players in Alberta

[Rhiannon12866]

The ultra-right U.S. Koch brothers, little-known to Canadians, are major players in Alberta's oil patch, where they control at least 1.1 million acres.

PEACE RIVER, ALTA.—Trevor Newton braves the driving sleet and the boot-sucking bog as he moves along an unmarked path through the Middle of Nowhere.

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A trim, sandy-haired man who spends part of his time on his cattle farm near Vancouver, Newton is chairman of the board of a small oil company. And until recently, he had no idea that he was surrounded by vast tracts of land acquired by Koch — the oil giant at the centre of a political storm in Washington and beyond.

“We knew they were alongside us, but we didn’t realize the extent to which they were all around us,” Newton says through the gusting wind. “When we looked at the recent (geological) survey we found they had assembled an absolutely massive land package in the Peace River area.

“Total Koch holdings in the region would be more than 360,000 acres — an area larger than Los Angeles. Koch’s holdings in the area dominate all the other leaseholders, including Shell.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/07/06/billionaire_koch_brothers_are_big_oil_players_in_alberta.html

[pscot]

1. The heart of darkness

Charlie Pierce says their souls are rotting.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I'm afraid I have to agree.

And apparently the U.S. isn't their only victim...