Flint Hills Resources in the Media

This is a roundup of coverage of Flint Hill Resources in the Media that was started Friday, May 6, 2011.

Articles, in reverse chronological order
John Aloysius Farrell - Huffington Post 4/25/11 ... Big producers are drawn to the industry by its tax breaks and mandates--even libertarians like the owners of Koch Industries, whose subsidiary Flint Hills Resources purchased four ethanol plants in Iowa in the last year....
 * Newt Gingrich faces questions about consulting job and support for biofuels

Bulk Transporter 4/12/11 … Flint Hills Resources, an independent subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc and a leading producer of transportation fuels in the Midwest, has acquired four Iowa ethanol plants since 2010 in Shell Rock, Menlo, Fairbank, and Iowa Falls.
 * Flint Hills plans to open office in Ames IA

In addition, Flint Hills has a significant presence in Iowa. The company distributes refined fuels throughout the state and owns a fuel terminal in Bettendorf. It also operates asphalt plants in Algona, Davenport, and Dubuque.

Karen Kleiss - Calgary Herald 3/24/11 … Alberta's lobbyist registry shows that on March 15, Koch Industries signed up to lobby the province on energy and resource development policy issues, as well as taxation and economic development. The company is run by Charles and David Koch, two of the richest men in the world….
 * Tea Party backers register to lobby in Alberta

The company website says subsidiary Flint Hills Resources is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters.

The company operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. It also has offices in Calgary.

Flint Hills' Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota was specifically designed to process Alberta bitumen. Some reports suggest that refinery processes 325,000 barrels of crude oil a day and that 260,000 of those barrels come from Alberta. Cohlmia did not respond to a request to confirm those numbers….

Canada NewsWire Group 3/10/11 … The Tea Party's biggest funders, the billionaire Koch brothers, have significant business links in Alberta. They are responsible for receiving and handling about 25 per cent of the oil sands crude sent to the U.S. and they own Calgary-based Flint Hills Resources Canada.
 * Alberta unions condemn Wisconsin decision to strip collective bargaining rights from workers

"Don't expect these guys to stay out of our politics. In fact, they may already be funding the Wildrose Alliance and Tory leadership candidates. We can't know for sure because both parties refuse to reveal their donors. Albertans should demand to know who is funding campaigns and candidates here," says McGowan….

Fanny S. Chirinos - Corpus Christi Caller 2/24/11 CORPUS CHRISTI — Flint Hills Resources flared for about 36 minutes Wednesday after a valve positioning failed.
 * Valve positioning failure causes release at Flint Hills

The refiner's East Plant in Corpus Christi released more than 1,300 pounds of sulfur dioxide and had 100 percent opacity during the event, according to a report it filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The valve positioner, which regulates lube oil flow to the wet gas compressor, failed causing the compressor to shutdown due to low lube oil pressure.

Crews stopped the feed going into the fluid catalytic cracking unit, which ceased the flaring. The valve positioner was replaced and the unit restarted on Thursday.

American Fuels 2/8/11 Flint Hills Resources recently closed on an equity investment in Benefuel, Inc., a company that has developed a technology that could dramatically improve the cost effectiveness of biodiesel production.
 * Flint Hills Resources Invests In Benefuel, Inc.

“We believe this technology has the potential to efficiently expand the range of low cost feedstocks used in biodiesel production,” said Jeremy Bezdek, managing director of innovation for Flint Hills Resources. “As part of our agreement with Benefuel, the company will build and operate an integrated pilot plant to prove its innovative process.”...

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Koch in the Media
 * Koch in Older Media
 * Georgia-Pacific in the Media
 * Koch Industries
 * Georgia-Pacific
 * Flint Hills Resources
 * Invista
 * Koch Brothers
 * David H. Koch
 * Charles G. Koch
 * Americans for Prosperity