By Henry Payne, Wall Street Journal

DETROIT: Standing next to his Ford F-150 pickup truck, John Frye surveys the buzz of activity at his industrial site on the Detroit River as a steady stream of trucks unloads petroleum coke—a coal-like, carbon energy source—for export. He and his brother Nolan are the proud owners of Detroit Bulk Storage, which also stores bulk commodities like salt and gravel.

The Fryes' operation has brought commerce to a moribund Detroit waterfront choked with weeds and abandoned warehouses. The activity is a direct result of Marathon Oil's MRO +0.81% huge refinery expansion here processing the gusher of oil from Canada's Alberta oil reserves—bringing needed tax revenue and hundreds of jobs to an inner city on the verge of Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Yet the experience of Detroit Bulk Storage also offers a window into the antibusiness environment that has helped drive Detroit to fiscal insolvency. In a microcosm of the Democratic Party's wider war on carbon that is hampering America's economic recovery, the brothers' 20-employee company has become a prime target for harassment from politicians. By going after the city's burgeoning industry in pet coke—a byproduct of oil-sands refining—"green" politicians like Detroit's U.S. Rep. Gary Peters hope to further discourage Canadian oil exports from ever making it to the Keystone Pipeline or other American refineries.

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