SUBHEAD: The Kochs have bet big that the earth is doomed. And Obama is fighting for them to win that bet.
By Eric Zuesse on 11 November 2013 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/the-kochs-have-bet-big-th_b_4175085.html)
Image above: Illustration of the Koch Brothers buried in money. Signs Extreme Wealth Deadens the “Empathy” and “Honesty” Parts of the Brain. From (http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/02/5-signs-extreme-wealth-deadens-the-empathy-and-honesty-parts-of-the-brain-2573070.html).
The Kochs have bet big that the earth is doomed. And Obama is fighting for them to win that bet.
Forbes magazine noted, way back in 2006, that though the Koch brothers - David and Charles - could sell Koch Industries and live happily ever after (on the proceeds from selling what was then the world's largest private company), Charles, who actually runs the firm, told them straight out, that selling it would be "literally over my dead body."
In other words: they won't do that.
What, then, is such an extraordinary business plan, that keeps them from simply retiring as two of the world's richest people? The answer seems clear:
Petroleum has been their firm's base, ever since their dad, Fred Koch, started Koch Industries in 1940 (on the proceeds he had earned mainly during 1929-32 from helping Stalin build the Soviet Union's crucial oil-infrastructure). However, Koch Industries has been diversifying recently. In 2004, they paid $4.2 billion for Dupont's fibers businesses, including Dacron and much else. Then, in 2005, they paid $21 billion for Georgia-Pacific, the paper and wood-products manufacturer.
But their chief business continues to be petroleum: not just the pipelines to transport it, but increasingly also the raw oil in the ground, and the dirtier the oil the better. They now own two-thirds of the world's dirtiest oil: Alberta Canada's tar sands.
And they are lobbying and propagandizing heavily for President Obama to allow construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline (which pipeline they would own 25%) in order for that deeply land-locked Canadian oil to be transported to two of their own Texas refineries, which have been especially adapted for the purpose. Not only would they be deriving about $1 billion per year from operating the pipeline, but they would also be marketing the tar sands, two thirds of which are on land that is owned by Koch Industries. That's the two-thirds of Alberta's tar sands oil that the Kochs actually own.
However, one of the world's biggest banks, HSBC, came out with a study, on 25 January 2013, "Oil & Carbon Revisited: Value at Risk from 'Unburnable' Reserves," which reported that in order for this planet to have even as much as a 50% chance of avoiding the climate's going haywire, "only around 1,000 Gt [Gigatons] or a third of current proven reserves can be 'burned'." Furthermore, "Embedded 'carbon' in coal is three times the amount bound in oil and over four times that in gas."
This report acknowledged that, "It is clear that reduced usage of coal [whose usage is soaring in China and already causing massive health-problems in Chinese cities] is the key to stabilising and eventually reducing annual carbon emissions. However, we believe that reductions in oil demand ... can be delivered more quickly than coal through improvements in transport fuel economy." In other words: forcing a reduction in oil-use is absolutely essential, in order for our descendants not to lose the planet quickly.
On page 16 of that report was a stunning calculation, titled "Break-evens for selected high-cost oil projects," and the researchers actually calculated there the price that a barrel of oil would need to fetch on the global market in order for each type of petroleum to be able to be produced without the sellers losing money on that oil. For "Deepwater" projects, it ranged from $49.40 up to $64.00. On "Heavy oil," it was $54.70. And on "Oil sands" (Alberta's oil, the dirtiest in the world), it was $75.50.
In other words, the Koch brothers (via their private firm) own two-thirds of the world's dirtiest petroleum, which consequently is so costly to process, that it becomes utterly worthless at a global per-barrel price of $75.50. All other oil would still be profitable at that price, but not the oil that now constitutes the biggest speculative (and by far the riskiest) portion of the Koch brothers' (or of Koch Industries') massive investment portfolio.
Whereas other oil companies have focused on the lowest-cost petroleums to get to market, the Kochs have focused instead on the highest-cost petroleum to get to market. They bought it cheap, because it's so dirty and land-locked.
Their business-plan (other than diversifying into non-petroleum industries) is simple: Drive their costs to produce their filthy oil down from the existing $75.50 per barrel, in order to make it more competitive (since they own two-thirds of the estimated 874 billion barrels of this stuff).
How can they drive that cost down? Right now, President Barack Obama is negotiating, behind the scenes, through his U.S. Trade Representative, to get Europe to weaken its anti-global-warming standards, so as to enable the world's dirtiest oil to become more price-competitive.
On 24 September 2013, Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post bannered "Michael Froman, Top U.S. Trade Official, Sides With Tar Sands Advocates," and she reported that the Obama Administration was threatening Europe with retaliation at the World Trade Organization if Europe didn't eliminate its distinction between high-CO2 oil and regular oil - between tar-sands-derived oil, and ordinary petroleum. The U.S. Trade Representative told Congress that the issue he had here didn't concern climate change, but only "inadequate transparency and public participation in the European Commission's regulatory process."
Then, Sheppard herself asked one of his aides, who simply reiterated that by saying, "The United States shares the EU's objective of reducing greenhouse gas intensity, but we have raised concerns with respect to inadequate transparency and public participation in the European Commission's regulatory process."
Sheppard, at least as far as her news report indicated, asked no follow-up question, such as: "'inadequate' in what way; and how can you even be talking about that since the issue here is global warming?" So: the President and his Representative have not been confronted publicly on this matter.
Barack Obama's public statements against global warming were belied by his actions in private, and yet his hirees, such as the U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, formerly a Managing Director of Citigroup, were turning the table and accusing the EU of "inadequate transparency" - as if the future of this planet weren't the issue, and a vastly more important one.
If President Obama can force Europe to lower their anti-global-warming standards in order to enable the Kochs to export their super-dirty oil to Europe via the Kochs' Corpus Christi Texas refineries, then a significant portion of the existing cost-disadvantage of the Kochs' super-dirty oil (as compared to cleaner oil) will be absorbed ultimately by the planet itself, in the form of added global warming.
"These refineries have a combined crude oil processing capacity of about 300,000 barrels per day. While one potential purpose of the KXL Pipeline for Koch Industries could be to provide access to Canadian tar sands for its Corpus Christi refineries, this benefit appears relatively insignificant compared to their massive potential profits from producing tar sands crude oil." (See page 11 there.)
In other words: President Obama is negotiating behind the scenes in order to transfer these harms onto everyone else, so that the benefits will go to the Kochs for their having paid dirt-prices for each and every one of the two million acres of tar sands they own. (That's on page 7.) Consequently, there would be, for the Koch brothers (as stated in the report's Executive Summary), "$100 billion in potential profits due to KXL." Their destroying this planet would thus be very profitable for them.
Apparently, this is the business plan that they are so eager to pursue that it's more attractive to them than simply retiring: Instead of their being each tied with the other as being the 6th-wealthiest person on this planet, they'd probably be by far the wealthiest two people of all individuals on Earth. (The report estimates that their joint existing fortune of roughly $80 billion will be enhanced by yet another $100 billion, for a total of $180 billion, or $90 billion apiece.)
Apparently, the Kochs are doing this for sheer status. (They couldn't possibly consume all their wealth even if they wanted to.) It thus seems that their motivation is basically similar to that of their father's great benefactor, Stalin. His status was based on communist values; theirs is based on fascist values; but the motivation is status, just the same.
And Barack Obama, against whom the Kochs bundled more campaign cash than any other two people, for Mitt Romney and for Republicans in Congress and in the state houses, is fighting against the European Union, in order to assist the Kochs to achieve this, their dream. Perhaps that's the only thing in this story that doesn't make sense, but it is certainly the case, up till now. And (if there is another thing that doesn't make sense) the massively ignorant American public wants them to win.
Obama's excuse for trying to force Europe to buy the Kochs' filthy oil might be called ludicrous. However, since this excuse proves that he is a hypocritical liar, and the stakes that are involved here are enormous for the entire world, it is, instead, tragic, if is not outright catastrophic.
Perhaps Obama, too, is chiefly driven by status. Then, all of this insanity on the part of the elite might make sense - in an insane sort of way. Maybe status-addicts are actually the type of people who most tend to rise to the top, anywhere. Hitler, Stalin, Capone, Koch, Obama, Bush: what's the difference, really, other than their "personality"?
.
By Eric Zuesse on 11 November 2013 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/the-kochs-have-bet-big-th_b_4175085.html)
Image above: Illustration of the Koch Brothers buried in money. Signs Extreme Wealth Deadens the “Empathy” and “Honesty” Parts of the Brain. From (http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/02/5-signs-extreme-wealth-deadens-the-empathy-and-honesty-parts-of-the-brain-2573070.html).
The Kochs have bet big that the earth is doomed. And Obama is fighting for them to win that bet.
Forbes magazine noted, way back in 2006, that though the Koch brothers - David and Charles - could sell Koch Industries and live happily ever after (on the proceeds from selling what was then the world's largest private company), Charles, who actually runs the firm, told them straight out, that selling it would be "literally over my dead body."
In other words: they won't do that.
What, then, is such an extraordinary business plan, that keeps them from simply retiring as two of the world's richest people? The answer seems clear:
Petroleum has been their firm's base, ever since their dad, Fred Koch, started Koch Industries in 1940 (on the proceeds he had earned mainly during 1929-32 from helping Stalin build the Soviet Union's crucial oil-infrastructure). However, Koch Industries has been diversifying recently. In 2004, they paid $4.2 billion for Dupont's fibers businesses, including Dacron and much else. Then, in 2005, they paid $21 billion for Georgia-Pacific, the paper and wood-products manufacturer.
But their chief business continues to be petroleum: not just the pipelines to transport it, but increasingly also the raw oil in the ground, and the dirtier the oil the better. They now own two-thirds of the world's dirtiest oil: Alberta Canada's tar sands.
And they are lobbying and propagandizing heavily for President Obama to allow construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline (which pipeline they would own 25%) in order for that deeply land-locked Canadian oil to be transported to two of their own Texas refineries, which have been especially adapted for the purpose. Not only would they be deriving about $1 billion per year from operating the pipeline, but they would also be marketing the tar sands, two thirds of which are on land that is owned by Koch Industries. That's the two-thirds of Alberta's tar sands oil that the Kochs actually own.
However, one of the world's biggest banks, HSBC, came out with a study, on 25 January 2013, "Oil & Carbon Revisited: Value at Risk from 'Unburnable' Reserves," which reported that in order for this planet to have even as much as a 50% chance of avoiding the climate's going haywire, "only around 1,000 Gt [Gigatons] or a third of current proven reserves can be 'burned'." Furthermore, "Embedded 'carbon' in coal is three times the amount bound in oil and over four times that in gas."
This report acknowledged that, "It is clear that reduced usage of coal [whose usage is soaring in China and already causing massive health-problems in Chinese cities] is the key to stabilising and eventually reducing annual carbon emissions. However, we believe that reductions in oil demand ... can be delivered more quickly than coal through improvements in transport fuel economy." In other words: forcing a reduction in oil-use is absolutely essential, in order for our descendants not to lose the planet quickly.
On page 16 of that report was a stunning calculation, titled "Break-evens for selected high-cost oil projects," and the researchers actually calculated there the price that a barrel of oil would need to fetch on the global market in order for each type of petroleum to be able to be produced without the sellers losing money on that oil. For "Deepwater" projects, it ranged from $49.40 up to $64.00. On "Heavy oil," it was $54.70. And on "Oil sands" (Alberta's oil, the dirtiest in the world), it was $75.50.
In other words, the Koch brothers (via their private firm) own two-thirds of the world's dirtiest petroleum, which consequently is so costly to process, that it becomes utterly worthless at a global per-barrel price of $75.50. All other oil would still be profitable at that price, but not the oil that now constitutes the biggest speculative (and by far the riskiest) portion of the Koch brothers' (or of Koch Industries') massive investment portfolio.
Whereas other oil companies have focused on the lowest-cost petroleums to get to market, the Kochs have focused instead on the highest-cost petroleum to get to market. They bought it cheap, because it's so dirty and land-locked.
Their business-plan (other than diversifying into non-petroleum industries) is simple: Drive their costs to produce their filthy oil down from the existing $75.50 per barrel, in order to make it more competitive (since they own two-thirds of the estimated 874 billion barrels of this stuff).
How can they drive that cost down? Right now, President Barack Obama is negotiating, behind the scenes, through his U.S. Trade Representative, to get Europe to weaken its anti-global-warming standards, so as to enable the world's dirtiest oil to become more price-competitive.
On 24 September 2013, Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post bannered "Michael Froman, Top U.S. Trade Official, Sides With Tar Sands Advocates," and she reported that the Obama Administration was threatening Europe with retaliation at the World Trade Organization if Europe didn't eliminate its distinction between high-CO2 oil and regular oil - between tar-sands-derived oil, and ordinary petroleum. The U.S. Trade Representative told Congress that the issue he had here didn't concern climate change, but only "inadequate transparency and public participation in the European Commission's regulatory process."
Then, Sheppard herself asked one of his aides, who simply reiterated that by saying, "The United States shares the EU's objective of reducing greenhouse gas intensity, but we have raised concerns with respect to inadequate transparency and public participation in the European Commission's regulatory process."
Sheppard, at least as far as her news report indicated, asked no follow-up question, such as: "'inadequate' in what way; and how can you even be talking about that since the issue here is global warming?" So: the President and his Representative have not been confronted publicly on this matter.
Barack Obama's public statements against global warming were belied by his actions in private, and yet his hirees, such as the U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, formerly a Managing Director of Citigroup, were turning the table and accusing the EU of "inadequate transparency" - as if the future of this planet weren't the issue, and a vastly more important one.
If President Obama can force Europe to lower their anti-global-warming standards in order to enable the Kochs to export their super-dirty oil to Europe via the Kochs' Corpus Christi Texas refineries, then a significant portion of the existing cost-disadvantage of the Kochs' super-dirty oil (as compared to cleaner oil) will be absorbed ultimately by the planet itself, in the form of added global warming.
"These refineries have a combined crude oil processing capacity of about 300,000 barrels per day. While one potential purpose of the KXL Pipeline for Koch Industries could be to provide access to Canadian tar sands for its Corpus Christi refineries, this benefit appears relatively insignificant compared to their massive potential profits from producing tar sands crude oil." (See page 11 there.)
In other words: President Obama is negotiating behind the scenes in order to transfer these harms onto everyone else, so that the benefits will go to the Kochs for their having paid dirt-prices for each and every one of the two million acres of tar sands they own. (That's on page 7.) Consequently, there would be, for the Koch brothers (as stated in the report's Executive Summary), "$100 billion in potential profits due to KXL." Their destroying this planet would thus be very profitable for them.
Apparently, this is the business plan that they are so eager to pursue that it's more attractive to them than simply retiring: Instead of their being each tied with the other as being the 6th-wealthiest person on this planet, they'd probably be by far the wealthiest two people of all individuals on Earth. (The report estimates that their joint existing fortune of roughly $80 billion will be enhanced by yet another $100 billion, for a total of $180 billion, or $90 billion apiece.)
Apparently, the Kochs are doing this for sheer status. (They couldn't possibly consume all their wealth even if they wanted to.) It thus seems that their motivation is basically similar to that of their father's great benefactor, Stalin. His status was based on communist values; theirs is based on fascist values; but the motivation is status, just the same.
And Barack Obama, against whom the Kochs bundled more campaign cash than any other two people, for Mitt Romney and for Republicans in Congress and in the state houses, is fighting against the European Union, in order to assist the Kochs to achieve this, their dream. Perhaps that's the only thing in this story that doesn't make sense, but it is certainly the case, up till now. And (if there is another thing that doesn't make sense) the massively ignorant American public wants them to win.
Obama's excuse for trying to force Europe to buy the Kochs' filthy oil might be called ludicrous. However, since this excuse proves that he is a hypocritical liar, and the stakes that are involved here are enormous for the entire world, it is, instead, tragic, if is not outright catastrophic.
Perhaps Obama, too, is chiefly driven by status. Then, all of this insanity on the part of the elite might make sense - in an insane sort of way. Maybe status-addicts are actually the type of people who most tend to rise to the top, anywhere. Hitler, Stalin, Capone, Koch, Obama, Bush: what's the difference, really, other than their "personality"?
.
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