# Flint Hills Resources The refining, chemicals, and biofuels arm of [[Koch Industries]] — the modern face of the company's original oil business, the operation that started it all under [[Charles Koch]]'s father and remains a core profit center. An independently managed, wholly owned Koch subsidiary, FHR runs major refineries, chemical plants, and a substantial ethanol and biodiesel portfolio, primarily across the Midwest and Texas. ## Refining Footprint FHR's flagship is the **Pine Bend refinery** in Rosemount, Minnesota — one of the largest and most complex coking refineries in the upper Midwest, historically central to Koch's fortunes. It also operates **two refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas** (East and West), and the combined crude-processing capacity across its system exceeds **700,000 barrels per day**, producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, asphalt, and petrochemical feedstocks. ## Chemicals and Biofuels Beyond refining, FHR has invested heavily in chemicals (plants in Illinois, Texas, and Louisiana) and in **ethanol and biodiesel** assets across Iowa, Nebraska, and Georgia — a multibillion-dollar buildout. The ethanol position is politically notable: Koch-affiliated entities have at times *criticized* ethanol mandates (the Renewable Fuel Standard) on free-market grounds even as FHR operates as a major ethanol producer, one of the small ironies of a company whose business interests and stated ideology don't always align. ## Energy Transition Hedging FHR has begun pairing its hydrocarbon core with on-site renewables: the Pine Bend refinery added a 45-megawatt solar installation (online 2023, then among the largest of its kind), and construction on a Corpus Christi solar project began in September 2024 — a modest but telling hedge by a refiner against an electrifying grid. ## Why It Matters Here Flint Hills Resources is the **historical and financial taproot** of the Koch empire — the energy business whose profits, decade after decade, have funded both the conglomerate's expansion and the [[Koch Network]]'s political operation. Its prominence also clarifies why Koch-funded politics has so consistently centered on **opposing environmental and climate regulation**: the network's signature policy fights (against cap-and-trade, EPA authority, and carbon pricing) map directly onto the commercial interests of a company that refines hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude a day. (See [[Koch Industries]] and [[Koch Network]].) ## See Also - [[Koch Industries]] — Parent company - [[Koch Network]] — Political machine aligned with FHR's regulatory interests - [[Charles Koch]] — Built the modern refining business - [[Georgia-Pacific]] · [[Guardian Industries]] — Sibling Koch subsidiaries