For those who think that fracking activities are kept hundreds of feet below ground,
or that fracking only involves Canada and northeastern states in the US,
or that the US Clear Air Act will prevent air contamination,
or that the Keystone Pipeline will only be used to transport natural gas,
or that Detroit deserves what it gets,
or that the Koch brothers are good guys ...
NY Times
IAN AUSTEN
5/17/13
A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit
Quote:
Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted
and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.
And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.
The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists
who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups
that challenge the science behind climate change.
The company sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas,
where it is burned as fuel.
<snip>
An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from
the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke,
of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled.
Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta.
Much is just piled up there.
Detroit’s pile will not be the only one.
Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States,
which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline
have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.
<snip>
Quote:
“It is worse than a byproduct,” Ms. Satterthwaite said.
“It’s a waste byproduct that is costly and inconvenient to store,
but effectively costs nothing to produce.”
<snip>
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