Environment
Koch Brothers’ Huge Coke Cloud Darkens Detroit
A specter is haunting Detroit — the specter of the Koch Brothers’ toxic brand of unregulated corporatism, as embodied in a cloud bank of pollution that recently blackened the Motor City’s horizon. Abby Zimet, writing in Common Dreams, describes the event as captured by a
[m]ind-boggling video of a billowing, high-carbon, high-sulfur cloud from the mountain of petroleum coke – waste from Canadian tar sands shipped from Alberta to Detroit, and the dirtiest potential energy source ever – illegally stored by the Koch Brothers along the Detroit River. Produced by Marathon Refinery but owned by Koch Carbon, the pet-coke piles have for months been producing “fugitive dust” – i.e.: thick black crud – that blankets the homes of outraged residents and lawmakers; analysis shows the dust contains elevated levels of lead, sulfur, zinc and the likely carcinogenic vanadium.
As we noted here last year, the Kochs are old hands at trying to create a legal basis for their industries to pollute with impunity.
-
Latest NewsOctober 14, 2025People in ICE Custody Face Invasive Strip Searches After Visits With Loved Ones
-
Column - State of InequalityOctober 9, 2025California Joins New York in Trying to Fill a Void on Worker Protections
-
The SlickSeptember 29, 2025Is the Sun Setting on Pennsylvania’s Solar Future?
-
Column - State of InequalityOctober 2, 2025Deep-Blue California Is a National Leader in De Facto Public-School Segregation. Here’s Why…
-
Column - California UncoveredOctober 14, 2025‘They Just Took You Away’
-
Dirty MoneyOctober 6, 2025On Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, Residents Fume as Insurers Hike Rates and Invest in Fossil Fuel Projects
-
The SlickOctober 10, 2025It’s Brown And Burns Your Eyes. In Small-Town Texas, Clean Water Is Elusive.
-
Striking BackOctober 15, 2025Dollar Store Workers Fight to Improve Jobs, Even Without a Union

