1.1 Million Acres in Canada and Counting: Koch Interest in Keystone XL Pipeline Confirmed

Posted on March 20, 2014 by IFG Leave a Comment

Acreage in Alberta’s tar sands region could be worth tens of billions of dollars in ultra-dirty Canadian crude oil for the billionaire Koch Brothers if President Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline, according to new research by IFG’s Plutonomy Program.

As seen above, trashing the Earth is inherent to Canada’s tar sands trade. The proposed Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline would accelerate tar sands “development” across Alberta, including the 1.1 million acres just discovered as being owned by the world’s two wealthiest men, Charles and David Koch.

New research from the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) confirms that Koch Industries has a huge financial interest at stake in KXL’s approval, which could dissolve into “stranded assets” if KXL is not approved. The Koch Brothers’ combined net worth ($101 billion) is far more than Bill Gates’ ($79 billion), allowing Koch to outspend all other oil companies—even Exxon—in blocking climate change policies. Koch has repeatedly denied any interest in KXL, but we now see that the very opposite is true. Read more