Michael Levi, The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America’s Future (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 20–49.
The earliest waves . . . Koch’s leadership team: Feilmeier, Razook, Sementelli, interviews by author, 2013–18; US natural gas prices taken from US Energy Information gas price database.
Razook and other senior executives . . . top story of the Tower: Razook, Sementelli, interviews by author, 2018; descriptions of Flint Hills offices based on notes and photos from reporting trip, 2018.
One reason . . . fracking had been around since the 1970s: Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), 21–26.
In 1980 . . . tax break for natural gas supplies: Alex Trembath, Jesse Jenkins, Ted Nordhaus, and Michael Shellenberger, “Where the Shale Gas Revolution Came From: Government’s Role in the Development of Hydraulic Fracturing in Shale,” Breakthrough Institute online, last modified May 2012; Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, “A Boom in Shale Gas? Credit the Feds,” Washington Post, December 16, 2011.
Brad Urban and his team canvassed the industry: Razook, Sementelli, interviews by author, 2018; Eagle Ford region production and figures taken from US Energy Information oil production database.
Koch Industries’ boardroom . . . Koch’s office: Razook, Sementelli, interviews by author, 2018; descriptions of boardroom taken from notes and photographs during reporting trip, 2018.
The Eagle Ford region . . . July of 2010: Eagle Ford region production and figures taken from US Energy Information oil production database; “Eagle Ford Takes Flight,” Discovery: The Quarterly Newsletter of Koch Companies, October 2011; O’Sullivan, Windfall, 1–107.
Along the Gulf Coast of Texas . . . oil refineries: Notes and photos from reporting trip to Gulf Coast and Flint Hills facility near Port Arthur, Texas, in 2016.
Nobody had built . . . since 1977: Anthony Andrews et al., Small Refineries and Oil Field Processors: Opportunities and Challenges (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, August 11, 2014).
The primary obstacle to building a new refinery was the Clean Air Act: “The Petroleum Industry: Mergers, Structural Change, and Antitrust Enforcement,” Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics, Staff Study, August 2004; Anthony Andrews and Robert Pirog, The US Oil Refining Industry: Background in Changing Markets and Fuel Policies (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, December 27, 2012); Andrews, et al., Small Refineries and Oil Field Processors; Robert Bradley and Thomas Tanton, “US Petroleum Refining: Let the Market Function,” Institute for Energy Research, December 19, 2005; Energy Market: Effects of Mergers and Market Concentration in the US Petroleum Industry (Washington, DC: US General Accounting Office, May 2004).
Between 1991 and 2000, there were 338 mergers: Ibid., 7; Diana L. Moss, “Competition in US Petroleum Refining and Marketing: Part 1—Industry Trends,” working paper, American Antitrust Institute, January 2007.
In 2002, there were . . . By 2012, there were only 115: The US Oil Refining Industry, 1.
Arizona Clean Fuels attempted to build: Andrews, Small Refineries and Oil Field Processors, 8; Joyce Lobeck, “3 Major Yuma-Area Projects Have Stalled, Yuma Sun (AZ), September 4, 2011; Michele Linck, “It’s No Race, but Arizona Clean Fuels Is Ahead, for Now,” Sioux City Journal (IA), September 4, 2009.
Fewer and fewer companies . . . larger and larger facilities: Andrews and Pirog, The US Oil Refining Industry: Background in Changing Markets and Fuel Policies (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, December 27, 2012), 4–5.
By 2004 . . . “imperfectly competitive”: Energy Market, 113–14.
By the time the Eagle Ford tsunami . . . full tilt: John R. Auers, interview by author, 2018; “US Refined Product Exports Developments, Prospects and Challenges,” presentation by John R. Auers, to 2017 EIA Energy Conference, Washington, DC, June 27, 2017, slide 6.
The bottleneck was severe . . . catastrophic price increases: Alison Sider, “Refinery Woes Stall Gasoline Price Drops,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2015.
In this environment . . . breathtaking: Auers, interview by author, 2018; “The Refining Cup: US ‘Trumps’ the World—but Challenges Abound,” presentation by John R. Auers, to AFPM Annual Environmental Conference, October 17, 2016, slide 19.
The profit margins fell sharply after 2011: Auers, interview by author, 2018; “The Refining Cup,” slide 19.
Koch enhanced the profitability . . . in Houston: Osbourn, interview by author, 2016; Energy Market; Moss, “Competition in US Petroleum Refining and Marketing”; Christopher Leonard, “A Blade Strikes Steel, and the Blast Shocks a Nation’s Energy System,” Bloomberg Businessweek, November 23, 2016.
Koch traded around Corpus Christi: Osbourn, Razook, Sementelli, interviews by author, 2016–18; Ben Fox Rubin, “Koch Industries to Buy PetroLogistics in $2.1 Billion Deal,” Wall Street Journal, May