TIME
LINE – KOCHS
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Sources:
Koch Industries Website, Wikipedia,articles now being added, and other.
His mother, Gatska, died when he was a child. Displaced by his father's marriage to a much younger woman, the daughter of a banker and the seven children then born of the marriage, he was dissatisfied at home. After apprenticing to a newspaper publisher in Holland for a while he decided to immigrate to America, drawn by the railroad boom of the late 1800s.
Railroads
were the Big Oil of their time, following a business model still in
use by the Kochs today.
1891 - Harry purchases the Quanah Chief, having relocated to Quanah, Texas from Austin.
1894 – Harry acquired the Quanah Tribune, consolidating the two papers under the name Tribune-Chief in 1897.
1898
– February 11 - Harry married Miss Margaret Mixon in Mclennan, TX.
November
10 – John Anton Koch born to Harry and Margaret M. Mixon Koch in
Quanah, Texas.
1900
– September 23 - Frederick
Chase Koch born to Harry and Margaret M. Mixon Koch in Quanah, Texas.
1907
- October 17 - Mary Clementine Robinson was the daughter of a Kansas
City, Mo., surgeon who also served as a professor at the University
of Kansas School of Medicine. An English and French major, Mrs. Koch
graduated in 1929 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She also
studied at the Kansas City Art Institute. Known to express her love
of the arts through drawing and painting, Mrs. Koch was also an
accomplished silversmith.
1917
– Frederick Chase Koch starts college at Rice University, in
Houston, Texas.
1919
– Frederick Chase Koch transfers to MIT from Rice University.
1922 –
Fred Koch graduates MIT.
First employed by the Texas Company in
Port Arthur, Texas, and then by the Medway Oil and Storage Company in
Kent, England, where he was chief engineer.
1925 – Joins an MIT classmate, P. C.
Keith, Keith-Winkler Engineering, a petrochemical engineering
concern in Wichita, Kansas. Soon, Keith moves on. Firm is renamed
the Winkler-Koch Engineering Company.
1926 - TAR SANDS - a patent
was filed by Karl Clark at the University of Alberta for a hot water
thermal extraction process which could separate oil from the surface
tar and this basic extraction process is still used today.
1927 –
Fred Koch invents an improved thermal cracking process for converting
heavy oil into gasoline. Cracking was first invented by a Russian
engineer, Vladimir Shukhov, in the late 19th century.
A consortium of larger oil companies sued
Koch for patent infringement and blocked him from selling his process
in the United States.
Koch’s new royalty-free thermal
cracking process, by producing higher yields of refined gasoline from
crude oil and reducing down time, helped smaller companies to better
compete with their larger, more entrenched, and better-capitalized
rivals. The latter lost no time in attacking Koch, filing no less
than 44 lawsuits against Winkler-Koch and all its customers in a
contemptible campaign to force the company out of business. That
Winkler-Koch won every lawsuit but one (and that verdict was later
overturned when it was discovered that the judge had been bribed) is
evidence enough that the full-frontal legal assault on the upstart
Koch was inspired by no higher motives than envy and greed. We must
suppose that, as a result of the campaign to sue him out of the
refining business, Fred Koch must have begun to understand that the
modern American business sector was not nearly as free-market as it
was cracked up to be.
1929 to
1932 - Koch built 15 cracking units in the Soviet Union, and many
others elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He also
brought Soviet technicians to the United States for training —
some of whom opted not to return to their Stalinist motherland.
He then
turned to the Soviet Union, where he helped Joseph Stalin build 15
refineries. David Koch has said that his father had no idea who the
Bolsheviks were when they arrived at his west Texas office asking
for his help.
1932 - October 22 - Marriage of Mary Clementine Robinson to Frederick Chase Koch, in Missouri.
1933 -
August 26 – First son born, Frederick Robinson Koch
1935 -
November 1 – Second Son born, Charles de Ganahl Koch
1940 - May
3 - Third son born, David Hamilton Koch
May 3 –
Fourth son born, William Ingraham "Bill" Koch
Koch
served as its president until 1941, when he established his own
firm, the Koch Engineering Company. He served as its president from
1943 to 1959.
Koch co-founded Wood River Oil and Refining Company, an oil refiner, located in East Saint Louis, Illinois, and served as its president.
1941 –
Fred C. Koch acquires Spring Creek Ranch in Kansas Flint Hills.
1943 -
Koch founded the Koch Oil Corporation, which he served as its
president from 1944 to 1959.
1945 –
Koch Engineering Company is formed.
1946 -
Koch acquired the Rock Island Oil and Refining Company in Oklahoma.
1951 –
Beaverhead Ranch in Montana, just West of Yellowstone Park, is
acquired
TAR
SANDS -Ned Gilbert, a
young geologist and landman at Sun Oil Co in Calgary recommended that
Tar Sands be leasedi
over the objections of George Dunlop, the Sunoco manager in Calgary.
Gilbert appealed to J. Howard Pew, who had been the chairman of Sun
oil Co since 1912. Pew told his board that if they wouldn’t lease
the acreage he would personally acquire it.
1952 - Fred Koch won the last of the
dozens of lawsuits the oil industry filed over his thermal cracking
process and secured a $1.5 million settlement. He went on to build a
modest fortune around pipelines and refineries named Wood River
until the name is changed to Rock Island Oil and Refining Company
in 1959.
Introduction
of FLEXITRAY valve trays.
Acquisition of historic Matador Ranch in West Texas
1955 - Pine Bend built by the Great
Northern Oil Company with a capacity of 25,000 barrels per day.[3]
Koch Industries purchased a controlling interest in the plant in 1969
James Howard Marshall II
(January 24, 1905 – August 4, 1995)
Marshall turned his investment in Great
Northern Oil Co. with Fred
Koch during
the 1950s into a 16% stake in Koch
Industries,
now the nation's second largest privately held company.[7]
When his eldest son J.
Howard Marshall III
sided with Bill
Koch,
Fredrick Koch and other collateral family members in a failed attempt
to take over Koch Industries from Charles
Koch and
David
Koch, he
purchased back company stock given previously as a gift and removed
the eldest son from his estate plan. Conversely, during the same
dispute, the late E.
Pierce Marshall
sided with his father, Charles Koch and David Koch.
1956 –
June 22 John Anton Koch dies in, Quanah, Hardeman County Texas, USA
1958 -
Fred Koch helped found the John Birch Society
1959 – Fred C. Koch acquires a one/third interest in Great Northern Oil Company which owns Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota.
Wood
River's name is changed to Rock Island Oil and Refining Company
1960
- After some of Fred Koch's Russian associates died at the hands of
Stalin, Koch became a lifelong opponent of communism. In 1960 he
self-published a 40-page booklet titled A
Businessman Looks at Communism
that he sold for 25 cents a copy.
His
four sons were all raised by this point in time.
1966 – Charles G. Koch becomes president of Rock Island Oil and Refining Company.
1967 – Fred Koch dies. Charles Koch, then 32 years old, became chairman and CEO. The company's annual revenues at the time were $177 million, less than two one- thousandths of what they are today.
TAR SANDS – Sun Oil - The world’s first Tar Sands plant was completed at an estimated cost of $250 million. That year, J. Howard Pew opened the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant concluding, “If the North American continent is to produce the oil to meet its requirements in the years ahead, oil from the Athabasca area must of necessity play an important role.”
1968 - Rock Island Oil and Refining Company is are renamed renamed iKoch Industries in honor of Frederick Chase Koch.
1969 - Charles Koch secured a controlling interest in Great Northern Oil Company.
Koch
Industries purchased controlling interest of the refinery in 1969 and
renamed the facility Koch
Refining Company. At the time,
the refinery was one of a few which had been built on the most
up-to-date principles of integration in order to assure maximum
efficiency in sequence of operations. During the early ‘90s, Koch
significantly expanded the refinery by adding process equipment. This
resulted in an expansion of the overall refinery layout. This
expansion was primarily driven by the need for desulfurized diesel
fuel for trucks.
1973 – TAR SANDS - Over ¾ of all Canadian oil and gas production was foreign owned (primarily US) or seven sister’ companies and all but 10% of Canadian petroleum companies were controlled by foreigners. Then as the price of oil fluctuated, the commerciality became uncertain many companies sold or reduced their interests and the Tar Sands were renamed oil sands to attract investors.
1976 – Koch Carbon if formed to market petroleum coke.
1978 – David H. Koch becomes president of Koch Engineering.
1979 –
Witchita entrepeneur George Ablah partners with Koch Industries to
form ABKO, which purchases Chrysler Realty for $195 million. Of
the more than 700 properties purchased in the deal 480 are sold
back to Chrysler in 1982.
September
4th
– The Libertarian National Convention begins at the Bonaventure
Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. David Koch is running for the
nomination as candidate for Vice President so the Koch Machine can
take over the Libertarian Party.
The
group doing the on-the-ground work is headed by Edward H. Crane,III
and his Flunkies, Lickspittles, and Brown-nosers. In accordance
with their common practices the Kochs are willing to invest money in
creating a centralized organization which places them in firm
control. Think of this as a first attempt, which eventually
succeeded with the Tea Parties.
September – Alternative '80 – This is the telethon, qua fundraiser, which took place from multiple locations across the country instead of having a real campaign for the Libertarian nominee, Ed Clark and David H. Koch. Bright Moment: Hearing Charles Koch ask Ed Crane, in horrified tones, how a fundraiser ended up in the red to the tune of $250,000. That was a lot of money for Libertarians, but not, evidently for Ed Crane. It was just dumb luck. I stepped into the elevator just as the conversation was beginning.
1981 - Koch Industries acquires a refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas from Sun Oil.
The Kochs lose control of the Libertarian Party when Alicia Clark is elected National Chairman at the National Convention in Denver, Colorado. They do not take this well.
1982 – Koch Industries acquires a second refinery.
1983 - Libertarian National Convention – New York NY - The Kochs lose again when David Bergland, the Libertarian Beach Boy, wins the nomination over Ed Ravenal at the National Convention. Nominees: David Bergland, John Lewis
The Crane Machine walks out in mass to begin scheming to destroy the Libertarian party.
1985 – Koch Industries acquires a third refinery.
1988 – Construction of Wisconsin pipeline to provide outlet for increased Pine Bend Refinery output.
Construction begins on the Texas pipeline, running from Corpus Christi to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Most of the jet fuel used at DFW is transported through this pipeline.
1989 – Koch Nitrogen Company if formed to enter the nitrogen fertilizer business.
LEGAL – May - The Senate held hearings on what the Senate special committee on investigations called "a widespread scheme to steal oil on Indian land." According to data the committee compiled, Koch took 1.95 million barrels of oil it didn’t pay for from 1986 to 1988.
The Senate referred the case to the Justice Department, but no indictment followed. In December 1999 in a civil trial, the jury found that "Koch Industries had made 24,587 false claims in buying oil, underpaying the U.S. government for royalties on Native American land from 1985 to 1989." Koch settled the case in 2001 for $25 million.
Koch's current PR line on the scandal? Melissa Cohlmia, Koch’s director of corporate communications, said in an email to Bloomberg reporters, "We believe that our practices were consistent with industry practice."[10]
1990 – Brown Flintube Company is acquired by Koch Chemical Technology Group
December 21 – Mary Robinson Koch dies in Witchita.
199s – LEGAL - Faults in Koch Industry pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil and chemical spills in five states, prompting a landmark penalty of $35 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Minnesota, it was fined an additional $8 million for discharging oil into streams.
According to an August 30, 2010 article in The New Yorker magazine, "In 1999, a jury found Koch Industries guilty of negligence and malice in the deaths of two Texas teen-agers in an explosion that resulted from a leaky underground butane pipeline. (In 2001, the company paid an undisclosed settlement.)
During the months leading up to the 2000 presidential elections, the company faced even more liability, in the form of a 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, a known carcinogen, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. The company faced liability for three hundred and fifty million dollars in fines, and four Koch employees faced up to thirty-five years in prison. [75]
1992 – Acquisition of $100 portfolio from Chrysler puts Koch in the municipal finance business. By the end of the decade Koch Financial Corp, has $1 Billion in assets.
The Howie Rich - Crane - Koch Machine is launched.
1993 – Publication of first Market-Based Management book.
1995 – Koch Indusrries establishes a venture capital group which invests $150 million in start-ups.
1996 –
LEGAL - Aug. 24 – Koch Industries incinerates two teenagers.
Danielle
Dawn Smalley Koch
Industries was hit by the largest judgment for personal liability in
history over the incineration of Danielle Smalley and a friend on
Aug. 24, 1996. The cause was a defective high-pressure gas pipeline
that exploded, taking the lives of the two teenagers. Both were 17.
Steve Kromer, then president of Koch Exploration, told Canada NewsWire that "Koch is committed to the Canadian heavy oil industry… As the demand for heavy crude continues to grow at Koch's Minnesota refinery, we intend to meet that demand with heavy crude from Canada."
1998 –
KoSa, in which Koch Industries has a 50 pecent interest, is formed to
acquire Hoechst's polyester division.
2000 –
FertiNitro completes construction of the world's largest fertilizer
complex in Venezuela. A Koch Nitrogen affiliate is a share holder
in FertiNitro.
LEGAL – April - The Koch Petroluem Group (now Flint Hills Resources) "pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to the government about its benzene emissions". A report to the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission disclosed only 1/149th of the actual benzene pollution. The company was fined $10 million and ordered to fund an additional $10 million in costs for environmental cleanup in South Texas.
The extremely profitable plant earned almost $200 million for the company in 1995, the year of the violation; the benzene emissions would have cost $7 million to control. After an environmental technician reported the false report that led to the fines, Koch Petroleum Group moved the whistle blower to an empty office with no tasks and no e-mail access. She quit a short time later.[9]
LEGAL - After George W. Bush became president the U.S. Justice Department dropped 88 of the charges. Two days before the trial, John Ashcroft settled for a plea bargain, in which the company pled guilty to falsifying documents. All major charges were dropped, and Koch and Ashcroft settled the lawsuit for a fraction of that amount.
David Uhlmann, a career prosecutor who, at the time, headed the environmental-crimes section at the Justice Department, described the suit as “one of the most significant cases ever brought under the Clean Air Act.”[75]
2002 –
Beaverhead Ranch in Montana becomes the first ranch in the US to earn
Wildlife Habitate Council certification.
2003 –
Flint Ridge Resources enters lubricant base oil business. Koch
nitrogen production business interests increase domestically and in
Trinidad and Tobago.
A purchase order for refining equipment at the plant was sent the day after President George W. Bush outlined the concept of an "axis of evil" in his 2003 State of the Union address, where he articulated his view that Iran was a direct threat to the United States and specifically advocated for economic sanctions that Koch companies may have been violating. “Every single chance they had to do business with Iran, or anyone else, they did,” said one whistle blower of Koch Chemicals' dealings with Iran.[8]
2004 –
Flint Ridge Resources purchases Alaskan assets, including a crude oil
refinery at the North Pole and terminals in Fairbanks and Anchorage.
Koch Industries acquires INVISTA, formerly DuPont Textiles and
Interiors and merge it with KoSa.
2005 –
Koch Industries acquires Georgia-Pacific for $22 Billion, including
the consumption of debt.
2006
– Forbes Magazine names Koch Industries the largest private
company in the world.
Study
Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and BillionairesAlthough he is now retired the guy who once headed the 'dirty tricks' political division of Koch Industries was named Dick Fink.
Howie
Rich, the Capo for Ed Crane, oversaw operations for Koch-funded
ooperations. Hart Williams, a journalist in Oregon, wrote about
their antics.
- Part
5: The Locusts *
- Part
10: The Present Through the Past
- Part
15: Oregon, Chicago, ALG and Al CaponeClick
here to download the .pdf of parts 1-15.
- Part
20: The Unedited PBS Interview
- Part
33: The Final Smear
- Epilogue
Hart and I
became acquainted when he found an article I had written about the
Kochs at this time.
In February 2005, the Hill reported, "Top White House official Matt Schlapp is joining the Washington office of oil-and-gas conglomerate Koch Industries, the latest example of high-level administration and congressional staffers making post-election leaps to the lobbying world." Schlapp had headed the White House’s Office of Political Affairs. At Koch, Schlapp will be the executive director of federal affairs, directing Washington lobbying. [10]
Elizabeth Stolpe, previously in-house lobbyist for Koch Industries, became Associate Director For Toxics & Environmental Protection at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
2007 –
Publication of the Science of Sucess: How Market-Based Management
Built the World's Largest Private Company, by Koch Industries Inc.,
Chairman and CEO, Charles G. Koch.
2008 –
The MinnCan Project, a 304 mile expansion of the Minnesota Pipeline
System was completed; it will deliver crude oil tore fineries in the
Twin Cities.
The company attempted to blame the sales agent and terminated him with a six page letter detailing the company's illicit payments to interests in Algeria, Egypt, India, Morocco, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and placing blame for them on the sales agent. However, the court found that "[the sales agent] was not giving authorizations" for the payments, instead indicating that Charles Ender, a major Koch executive and president of Koch-Glitsch for Europe and Asian operations at the time, was responsible.[6]
2009 –
INVISTA'S STAINMASTER and ANTRON Carpet fibers become the first to be
certified as Environmentally Preferred Products.
2010 –
Flint Ridge Resources acquires the first two of four Iowa ethanol
plants.
Matador Ranch aqarded two
of Texas's highest environmental stewardship honors.
POLITICAL – September - Koch subsidiary donates $1 million to stop Calif. GHG law.
A company controlled by the Koch brothers donated $1 million to the campaign to pass Proposition 23, the Suspend AB 32 California ballot initiative that would halt the state's global warming law. The contribution came from Flint Hills Resources, a Kansas petrochemical company that is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. The Koch donation came a day after Tesoro, a Texas oil company that has been bankrolling the pro-Prop 23 campaign, put $1 million into the campaign coffers. According to the No Prop 23 campaign, 97 percent of the $8.2 million raised by the Yes forces has been given by oil-related interests and 89 percent of that money has come from out of state. Three companies, Koch Industries, Tesoro, and Valero -- another Texas-based oil company -- have provided 80 percent of those funds.[70]
2011 – INVISTA expanded its spandex venture in Foshan, China to meet the growing demand.
Koch Fertilizer acquired H&J Bunn, LTD, one of UK's largest independent fertilizer distributors.
POLITICAL - Feb. 23 - New Hampshire's overwhelmingly Republican House of Representatives voted to support HB 519, a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which has cut greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution and made improvements in energy efficiency. The bill passed by a nearly party-line vote of 246 to 104 (13 Republicans voted against, two Democrats for). The bill has to pass through the finance committee before a final house vote and consideration by the senate. Gov. John Lynch (D-NH), who has touted the success of RGGI in making the air healthier while increasing economic prosperity, is expected to veto the bill, but Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature. The bill was aided by robocalls from the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity group, which flooded the state with calls in support the bill. Rep. Sandra Keans (D-Rochester), told the Nashua Telegraph that AFP’s calls were “sleazy” and deliberately false: “I have never seen such a cowardly perpetration pulled on the citizens of New Hampshire."[67]
July - New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch vetoed the effort, stating ""I am vetoing this legislation because it will cost our citizens jobs, both now and into the future, hinder our economic recovery, and damage our state's long-term economic competitiveness." [68]
LEGAL - September 22 - business media outlet Bloomberg released an extensive report detailing the results of an investigation it had conducted into allegations by several former Koch employees turned whistle-blower. One whistle-blower detailed her termination after her compliance check had discovered a number of bribery payments made in order to secure contracts in six countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Reporters also discovered that Koch companies had traded with Iran through foreign-held subsidiaries, possibly violating US law. Other sources within the article detailed a culture of poor ethics and allegations of outright theft.[5]
POLITICAL - Spring- Article, Andrew Stern of Reuters tied the Koch brothers directly to the union-busting effort, writing that "Charles and David Koch, who both rank 24th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people with $17.5 billion each, are behind campaign donations of tens of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republicans leading the anti-union effort." Brian Doherty, editor of Reason Magazine (which is published by a Koch-funded think tank), wrote "this is all a wave of political belief that the Kochs unquestionably have funded in various ways for years and years," [61]
The New York Times reported that, between 1997 and 2008, David and Charles Koch collectively gave more than $17 million to groups lobbying against unions[62]; the Kochs are one of (Republican) Governor Walker's largest corporate supporters.[63]
TAR SANDS - , TransCanada requested permission to build a 1,661 mile pipeline from Canada's tar sands oil fields to U.S. refiners in Texas. The so-called Keystone XL pipeline would import as much as 510,000 barrels per day. Koch Industries is responsible for close to 25 percent of the oil tar sands crude that is imported into the United States, and are one of the biggest refiners of Alberta oil sands crude oil. [71] Some speculated that Koch Industries would benefit significantly from the project. [72]
May - Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) formally requested more information from Republican leadership on the House Energy and Commerce Committee about how the project might benefit Koch Industries. They wrote:
Publicly available information indicates that the company is involved in several aspects of Canadian tar sands development. Koch’s Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota currently processes roughly 25% of the tar sands fuel imports to the United States. Koch owns Flint Hills Resources, LLP, in Calgary, Canada, which is “among Canada’s largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters.” Flint Hills Resources also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, where the Keystone XL pipeline will begin. According to the Government of Alberta, Koch Industries has both proposed and producing tar sands projects in the province. The Oil Sands Developers Group also indicates that Koch is a tar sands project developer. Koch’s Corpus Christi refinery is positioned near the end of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and would be a potential buyer for the tar sands crude shipped through the pipeline.[73]2012 – Announces the expansion of the Witchita campus, including 210,000 square-foot office building to accommodate 745 employees.
Purchases 44.4 percent interest of Guardian Industries, Corp., maker of glass, automotive, and building products.
TAR SANDS - Shell and its partners Petrochina, Korea Gas Corporation and Mitsubishi Corp selected TransCanada in 2012 to build a Natural Gas and LNG export pipeline from Dawson Creek to Kitimat. This includes a Douglas Channel LNG export facility.
TAR SANDS - In 2012, the province OF Alberta ran a $3 billion budget deficit. At the same time, the Fort McMurray School Board, the birthplace of the Tar Sands boom, was confronted with cutting the school week to 4 days because they couldn’t afford to pay their school bus drivers for a full week. More than 1400 children were reliant on the Fort McMurray food band and 100 women per year are turned away from the women’s shelter in town due to a lack of beds.
2014 –
February – TAR
SANDS - Transcanada is moving forward with their Heartland
pipeline project proposal to move 600,000 - 900,000 barrels per day
of Tar Sands oil 125 miles from Fort Saskatchewan to Hardisty.
Hardisty, Alberta is where the Koch Bros. have a Tar Sands refinery.
Construction is expected to begin in 2015 and the 36 inch pipeline
could be in service in 2015. This project was approved in February
2014 and includes a terminal facility with 1.6 million barrel
storage capacity at an estimated combined cost of $900 million.
March
– TAR SANDS - Enbridge East pipeline project was approved. This
involves a reversal of direction and increase in capacity to 300,000
barrels per day for Enbridge Line 9 across 400 miles from Ontario to
Montreal. This would nearly supply the excess capacity of the two
Quebec Refineries, Valero Energy and Suncor Energy in Montreal.
March
- TAR SANDS - TransCanada Corp proposed a $12 billion Energy East
Pipeline to extend nearly 3000 miles from Alberta to the East Coast
and would be capable of transporting over 1 million barrels of Tar
Sands oil per day. This would probably be refined at the Irving Oil
plant in Saint John refinery and exported at a new terminal at the
port.
TAR
SANDS - the final 200 mile leg of the Portland, Maine to Montreal
pipeline built in World War II and now controlled by Exxon will also
be reversed and expanded. These projects could be completed in 2014
at an estimated cost around $3 billion.