TORONTO — TransCanada has pushed back the possible startup date of a controversial pipeline that would carry Canadian oil to refineries in Texas.
The Calgary, Alberta-based company said Tuesday in an earnings release that its executives continue to work with Nebraska to determine the best route that avoids Nebraska’s environmentally sensitive Sandhills region.
Last month, the administration of President Barack Obama denied a permit for the project, but left the door open for TransCanada to apply for a new pipeline route. The company said last month it expected the new application would be processed in an expedited manner so that it could be in service in late 2014.
TransCanada has now moved that back to early 2015.
The company said it remains fully committed to the construction of Keystone XL and said “plans are already under way on a number of fronts to largely maintain the construction schedule of the project.”
They reiterated that they will reapply for a permit and that they expect a new application would be processed in an expedited manner.
The U.S. State Department, however, has previously said it wouldn’t necessarily expedite what would be a new review process.
Obama blocked the $7 billion pipeline last month, saying officials did not have enough time to review the project before a February deadline imposed by Congress.
The pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta across six U.S. states to the Texas Gulf Coast, which has numerous refineries.
TransCanada first applied to build the pipeline in 2008, under the George W. Bush administration.
TransCanada says the pipeline could create as many as 20,000 jobs, a figure opponents say is inflated. A State Department report last summer said the pipeline would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction
The pipeline is a dicey proposition for Obama, who enjoyed strong support from both organized labor and environmentalists in his 2008 campaign for the White House.
Environmental advocates have made it clear that approval of the pipeline would dampen their enthusiasm for Obama in November. Some liberal donors even threatened to cut off funds to Obama’s re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport “dirty oil” that requires huge amounts of energy to extract and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
By rejecting the pipeline, Obama also risks losing support from organized labor, a key part of the Democratic base, for thwarting thousands of jobs.
The company said last month it expected the new application would be processed in an expedited manner so that it could be in service in late 2014.
TransCanada has now moved that back to early 2015.
==========================================================
Shouldn’t that say the company has extended the date to 2015. Saying it has been moved back seems to imply it will be started sooner rather than later. Hopefully by then Obama will be out of office and a more energy,job conscience president will be in.
That said I wonder why here in the US use one big pipeline and bury it. When in a hostile country like Nigeria they use many small pipes above the ground on easily sabotaged platforms. It’s no wonder whole towns get consumed by fire when people try to tap into them and steal the product for whatever purpose. Raw light sweet crude will burn better than diesel in some cases with more energy per pound because here we crack it and subtract a lot of the most powerful ingredients out before it’s released to the public. The higher octane rating only prevents the fuel from combustion at a lower temperature. So we can have higher compression engines without the fear of pre-combustion.
That said I still wonder why they use many small pipes above ground, with many points of failure, rather than having one large one under ground, where terrorist and thieves will have a much harder time to get to, and damages will be at a minimum?
Loggerheads
Add the Keystone XL Pipeline project to a LLoooonnnggg and growing list of DC gridlock and loggerheads. The National Republican Party, the Republican House Caucus, US Chamber of Commerce and the Keystone XL Pipeline group have ‘gone out on a limb’ on this one, and they are not going to back down. They are further not going to willingly clarify a damting to the public. In that regard, they live in a fantasy world.
I vote in the Republican primary and attend a few meetings and have paid local Chamber of Commerce dues from place to place and time to time. I have even worked on more than a few pipeline projects.
I don’t like anything about O’Bama and do not consider him to be constitutionally qualified to occupy the Whitehouse. I am generally hostile to the Greenies and the DNC and most of their very radical agenda. I am more sympathetic to the trade unions than most card-carrying Republicans but entirely hostile to the ‘public-service-unions’.
Nonetheless, when a power-play of this sort is underway and the industry players will NOT disclose the details …
It is ALWAYS a dirty deal.
Always!