Posted on 04/03/2015 4:49:50 AM PDT by thackney
TransCanada on Thursday announced a two-year delay to its plans to move the Canadian tar sands. The company is cancelling its plans to build a controversial export terminal in Quebec, citing environmental concern over the endangered beluga whale. This means a delay to plans for finishing the Energy East pipeline, now set for 2020. In the meantime, TransCanada will search for a new location for its port.
For once, then, Canadian oil news isn't about the TransCanada-owned Keystone XL, which has faced a six-year delay as the Obama administration sits on a decision to issue a permit. At least not directly, anyway. Energy East, once completed, would be even bigger than Keystone XL, delivering 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day, compared to Keystone’s 800,000 barrels. As its name implies, the pipeline would run from the Alberta tar sands eastward to the shipping lanes of the Atlantic coast.
Not only are Keystone and Energy East similar battles, but proponents (and opponents) often tie the two pipelines' fates together. Keystone opponents say building that pipeline would ensure tar sands extraction continues at a rapid pace, setting the world on track for severe climate change. Proponents argue that Keystone doesn't matter either way, because other pipelines like Energy East make tar sands development inevitable. If the United States doesn't build its pipeline, they say, Americans will miss out on the economic benefits. “We don’t think there’s any way that the oil will stay in the ground,” Matt Letourneau, a spokesperson for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said last year. “Certainly the market will find a way.”
But so long as there are delays, tar sands development isn't inevitable because Energy East's future, like Keystone's, is far from settled. Oil companies are still in the middle of working out how to get the landlocked tar sands to the coasts for refining and shipment, and during their delays on multiple fronts, Keystone isn't a futile fight.
The delay could provide a boost to organizers trying to delay other tar sands projects. Each of these pipelines face a similar environmental playbook: Delay as long as possible in the hopes that it becomes unprofitable or impossible for companies to pursue their plans. Keystone has faced years of delay, and now Energy East faces its own uncertain future. Environmentalists weren't the only reason for TransCanada's change of plans. Because oil prices are low right now, companies have little incentive to pursue their plans to extract costly tar sands for little profit.
TransCanada still has a strong incentive to find a new port and finish construction. Oil prices surely will rebound eventually, making the tar sands profitable once again.
“I don't think you can look at this as a major impediment to the future of oil sands development but it certainly speaks to the opposition to pipelines, the anxiety about shipments of oil and, of course, to the increasing importance of environmental protection to the public,” Andrew Leach, an economist with the University of Alberta, said. “The beluga is an iconic species, so I think the writing was on the wall for this once the risk to habitat was made clear, in particular in Quebec.”
In the short-term, however, this is a win for environmentalists. And it may even help them in their fight against Keystone.
This is a bogus piece of anti oil sands propaganda...some greenies in Quebec kicked up a fuss so the new terminus is St. John New Brunswick
http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/new-brunswick-hopes-to-gain-from-quebecs-energy-east-loss?__lsa=b537-f41d
Thank you. Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight. :)
Part of the problem with the tar sands oil transport is that it has to be mixed with volatile chemicals to dilute it enough to allow it to flow. The end result is Dilbit, a sandy, chemical, oil slurry that is much more abrasive and corrosive to pipes than ordinary oil. In 2010, when a 6 ft. diameter pipe cracked on a Kalamazoo, MI tributary, it took 24 hours for the company, Enbridge to realize there was a break. They have since spent over a $billion cleaning it up and are not finished yet.
It has just been brought to my attention that there are huge reserves in Utah of oil sands. Is it possible that not only will the price of oil affect the feasibility of building the Keystone Pipeline, but also the interests of Utah politicians who want their oil sands to avoid competition with Canada’s? Utah’s tar sands are estimated to hold 12 to 19 billion barrels of oil.
Here is an interesting article covering both Canada and Utah tar sands oil. http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/
I wonder how much Reid and Utah Mormon interests will get involved in the potential competition of Utah oil sands versus Canadian? See my comment #23.
How, pray tell, is the shipment of Athabascan oil in any way a threat to the beluga whale?
How many tankers full of crude oil and refined products have traversed the North Atlantic in the past hundred years-or-so?
Volatile chemicals? like Naphtha, Pentane Plus, etc?
The stuff that normally exists in light crude oil we pump with no additional concerns?
It is not more abrasive or corrosive than crude oil.
Federal scientists: Diluted oil sands crude poses no higher pipeline risk
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/06/25/federal-scientists-diluted-tar-sands-crude-poses-no-higher-pipeline-risk/
The heavy oil sands crude that would flow through Keystone XL is no more likely to cause pipelines to corrode and fail than other crudes, according to a government study Tuesday that could give a boost to the controversial TransCanada Corp. project...
The academy’s study concluded that “diluted bitumen does not have unique or extreme properties that make it more likely than other crude oils to cause internal damage to transmission pipelines from corrosion or erosion.” Because diluted bitumen — also known as “dilbit” — is comparable in viscosity and density to other crude oils, it moves through pipelines in a similar manner, the scientists found.
Additionally, organic acids in diluted bitumen are not corrosive to steel under pipeline operating temperatures, the researchers said.
They also found that diluted bitumen does not have any unique properties making it more likely to cause damage to transmission pipelines, either by external corrosion and cracking or from mechanical forces:
> In 2010, when a 6 ft. diameter pipe cracked on a Kalamazoo, MI tributary, it took 24 hours for the company, Enbridge to realize there was a break. They have since spent over a $billion cleaning it up and are not finished yet.
They are finished, as was pointed out to you before.
> Portions of the river were dredged and riverbank was restored with native plantings along the entire 35-mile stretch of waterway in Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties. Dredging near Ceresco and Morrow Lake is being completed. On Oct. 9, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources reported that all sections of the river had reopened for public use.
I guess they are not finished if the dredging is BEING completed. Once it IS completed, then it will be completed. I am glad the rier has been reopened for public use. Do you have any information on how many families permanently lost their homes?
The story clip was from last year, by which time 99% of the spill had been cleaned up for a few years already. Your clip from Huffpo or whatever left wing site you use appears to be from a year or so after the initial event.
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