You Can Thank The Koch Brothers For The Big, Dirty Cloud Floating Over Detroit

[Galraedia]

Source: ThinkProgress

On Tuesday, Detroit Bulk Storage confirmed that a large black cloud spotted over the Detroit River last weekend and caught on camera by residents across the border in Windsor, was indeed from the petroleum coke piles they have been storing illegally on behalf of Koch Carbon.

Watch the video, courtesy of the Windsor Star:

The petroleum coke is a high-carbon, high-sulfur byproduct of Canadian tar sands that are shipped from Alberta to Detroit to be refined. The uncovered black pile began building up along the river this year and drew outrage from residents of Detroit and nearby Windsor, Ontario as it grew to over three stories high and a block long.

The pet-coke was produced by Marathon Refinery but is owned by Koch Carbon which is controlled by Charles and David Koch — billionaire industrialists and major backers of a host of ultra-conservative efforts, including several aimed at obstructing action on climate change and impeding progress on clean energy.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/01/2392481/kochs-coke-cloud/

[BlueManFan]

1. World's. Richest. Douchebags. Period.

[matthews]

2. Let's see how fast the feds or state environmental depts hop on this.

It's not like that pile of filth was a secret. And it's not like this wasn't likely to happen.

[wordpix]

6. yeah, I've been waiting for EPA, DOJ, Obama---- and waiting and waiting - the state is on it but

cannot do anything against the Koch power, or so it seems from the news stories.

More change I can't believe in anymore

[Iliyah]

3. Profit over lives

soon everyone will have to wear gas mask when out in the open and gawd forbid how many people will be left out of the elite facilities.

[Berlum]

4. Republicon fatcats crapping on America (and Canada)

as usual

[wordpix]

8. yup, petKoch piles up 4 stories high without a permit & no one takes them to court

What're you waiting for, EPA, DOJ and the state of Michigan?

Here's hoping Canada at least will do something b/c our gov. appears helpless in the face of these Koch thugs

[Igel]

5. Gotta complain about it while you can.

The wind could blow the coke dust because the coke was being loaded onto a ship for export.

(I grew up playing with coal coke and with a black grime over everything on a consistent basis when they'd blast clean the smokestacks of coke particles and the blast furnaces of hematite particles. At least the hematite was fun when you had a strong magnet.)

[wordpix]

7. since the Kochs own it, it should go back to them in front of their homes on their $$billion lawns

[Octafish]

9. Freep ran an article on the coke pile, but nothing on the coke smoke...

http://www.freep.com/article/20130723/NEWS05/307230089/Pet-coke-piles-being-shipped-out-of-Michigan

...at least nothing I've seen in the papers or the news channulz.

[Sunlei]

10. damn that is bad stuff to blow like that for years on to people and the city.

finally someone documents with a youtube post. send soil and air samples to a private test lab. kochs will have that youtube buried gone and claim it's a fake.

[Blue Owl]

11. Koch is one helluva thug

n/t

[hughee99]

12. Detroit should fine them $18 billion dollars

and kill 2 birds with one stone. Detroit gets completely out of debt and the Koch brothers will get an expensive lesson in cleaning up after themselves.

[Judi Lynn]

13. A righteous world would never have allowed them to do so much damage. n/t