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TransCanada announces major contract for Energy East pipeline

TransCanada announces major contract for Energy East pipeline 

Project is controversial, with Montreal and nearby mayors opposed on environmental grounds

TransCanada's proposed pipeline project would carry 1.1 million barrels a day from Alberta through Quebec to an export terminal in Saint John.

TransCanada’s proposed pipeline project would carry 1.1 million barrels a day from Alberta through Quebec to an export terminal in Saint John. (Canadian Press)

(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

The Calgary-based company planning to build the Energy East pipeline says it has signed a provisional multimillion-dollar order for the construction of 22 modular enclosures along the pipeline route.

TransCanada Corp. officials say their deal with ABB Canada would create 120 direct jobs in Quebec and a further 90 spinoff jobs outside the greater Montreal area.

But there’s a catch: the jobs would materialize only if regulators approve the controversial pipeline project.

The proposal has run into major opposition in Quebec, with the mayors of Montreal and dozens of surrounding municipalities saying the project’s environmental risks outweigh its economic benefits.

The $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline would carry a million barrels a day of western crude as far east as Saint John to serve domestic refineries and international customers.

The project would include the existing TransCanada pipeline as far east as Montreal and would require the construction of 1,600 kilometres of new pipeline, including a long section that would run through Quebec to the south coast of New Brunswick.

Construction possible by 2018

If the federal government and the National Energy Board give their OK, TransCanada has said it could begin construction by 2018. The pipeline would be ready for use by 2020.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Transcanada’s $15 Billion Lawsuit Against U.S. is a Bad Omen for Trans-Pacific Partnership

WHY TRANSCANADA’S $15 BILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST U.S. IS A BAD OMEN FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

The latest expression of our corporate-controlled economic structure revealed itself last week when TransCanada, the Canadian-based energy giant that hoped to build the Keystone XL pipeline, filed a $15 billion lawsuit against the United States government for rejecting the pipeline’s construction, under guidelines set forth in NAFTA. The lawsuit presents the most recent evidence of the prioritization of corporate profits and interests over the rights of citizens in a sovereign, domestic nation. Yet instances like this will only increase with the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In a statement accompanying the news, TransCanada announced that it had “undertaken a careful evaluation of the Administration’s action and believe there has been a clear violation of NAFTA and the U.S. Constitution in these circumstances.” The company also called the government’s decision to reject the pipeline “arbitrary and unjustified.”

Arbitrary and unjustified indeed. The pipeline, about 1,200 miles long, would have carried over 830,000 daily barrels of crude oil, or tar sands, from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast. It would have been built over precious aquifers throughout the midwestern U.S., namely the Ogallala Aquifer. It would also violate tribal sovereignty and potentially pose problems with eminent domain – where landowners would be forced to give up their land to a foreign corporation under the argument that it was somehow serving the “public interest.”

How dare we, as a free nation, come to the conclusion that this pipeline is bad for our country?

But here’s the real kicker: not only can TransCanada sue the U.S. government over the costs of the project, but the company is also allowed to seek an array of damages taking the form of “expected future profits.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Breaking: TransCanada’s Hopes For “Zombie” Keystone XL Pipeline Revived As South Dakota Validates Expired Permit

Breaking: TransCanada’s Hopes For “Zombie” Keystone XL Pipeline Revived As South Dakota Validates Expired Permit

Chris Nelson, the chair of the commission, concluded TransCanada could still meet all the conditions of its expired permit. The fact TransCanada was denied a needed presidential permit to cross international borders was not a reason to deny certification because the next president could grant it, the PUC chair said.

He stated that the lawyers representing the Intervenors — indigenous tribes, the grassroots group Dakota Rural Action, and individual landowners — did not make a case proving TransCanada was unable to meet any of the conditions required to build the pipeline, despite a nine-day hearing last summer at which Intervenors presented reams of evidence and allegations to the contrary.

I can’t change that we have different world views,” Nelson said to his “Native American friends” before the vote was taken. He thanked the “natives” for explaining to him why they vehemently opposed the pipeline. His decision must be based on the law, not emotions, he told them.

After the decision was made, Joye Braun, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Oyate broke out in a protest war cry. She deemed the Keystone XL a “zombie pipeline.”

VIDEO: Joye Braun protests the decision to renew TransCanada’s Permit for the Keystone XL in South Dakota.

The hearings that the PUC based its decision on were marred with questionable actions from the start.

Lawyers for the Intervenors questioned the PUC’s impartiality before the hearing began. Many who wanted to testify against the permit renewal were unable to do so because they failed to meet deadlines for filing pre-trial testimony. And much of the evidence those who did pre-file testimony wanted to cite was precluded from the proceedings.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Canadian Oil Trapped Without More Pipeline Capacity

Canadian Oil Trapped Without More Pipeline Capacity

Adding insult to injury for Canada’s oil industry, Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came out against the Keystone XL Pipeline on September 22, ending several years of silence and waffling on the controversial issue.

That comes as a blow to TransCanada, the project’s backer, who wanted to connect Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The 1,179-milepipeline would allow 830,000 barrels of oil per day to be exported from Canada. Clinton’s opposition will add some pressure on the U.S. President to reject the pipeline, which looks increasingly likely.

But if the pipeline is rejected, it won’t just be bad news for TransCanada, but also for Canada’s larger oil industry. Canadian crude trades at a discount to WTI, in part because of a lack of pipeline capacity. That discount has fluctuated over the years – ranging from $40 at a high point to around $15 today – but the bigger the discount, the more revenue is lost by Canada’s oil producers.

Related: Peak Oil Has More To Do With Oil Prices Than You May Think

Now with oil prices less than half of what they were from a year ago, the discount that Canada’s oil sector must sell their oil for is even more painful. “At $100 a barrel it was a big concern. At $45 a barrel, that is a far larger percentage (of revenue) and is likely the difference between profitable and unprofitable on many of the assets,” Tim McMillan, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), told Reuters in an interview in early September.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

RCMP planning mass arrests at pipeline protest camp, northern B.C chiefs fear

RCMP planning mass arrests at pipeline protest camp, northern B.C chiefs fear

RCMP say they are just working to keep the peace

A dispute over energy projects and aboriginal rights is heating up at a pipeline protest camp in northern B.C. where First Nations leaders fear police are planning mass arrests.

Since 2009, Wet’suwet’en people, activists and environmentalists have been building a remote camp in northern B.C. to block several major pipeline projects. They include:

  • Chevron’s Pacific Trail Pipeline.
  • Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project.
  • Shell’s TransCanada Coastal GasLink pipeline project.

Shell plans to build a 650-kilometre pipeline from B.C.’s gas-fracking region to a proposed LNG site in Kitimat.

Spokeswoman Shela Shapiro told CBC News the company supports the right to peaceful protest, but called the RCMP after Unist’ot’en protesters prevented workers from using a public road on Thursday.

The camp is about a two-hour drive southwest of Houston, B.C. on rough forest roads.

Shapiro said Unist’ot’en protesters have told TransCanada staff to leave the area “on a number of occasions.”

Yesterday afternoon, the Unist’ot’en Camp posted a message on its Facebook page.

“Coastal Gaslink crews showed up at Chisolm checkpoint. Threatened checkpoint crew that a police report will be filed as they do not have consent to enter the territory.”

‘Non-violent occupation’

Shapiro told CBC that TransCanada  is “absolutely willing” to work with camp leaders, saying the company has made more than 90 attempts to speak with the hereditary chief and Unist’ot’en spokesperson.

The Unist’ot’en camp calls itself a “non-violent occupation” of traditional aboriginal land. Unist’ot’en camp protesters routinely stop traffic on remote forest service roads near the camp and turn back oil and gas crews.

Companies trying to use the area say they’re trying to use public roads to access Crown land, and some have ferried their crews to nearby worksites by helicopter.

Now, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says top RCMP officials have told them a major police crackdown is imminent.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Big Oil in Retreat

Big Oil in Retreat

On July 14, 2011, at TomDispatch, Bill McKibben wrote that he and a few other “veteran environmentalists” had issued a call for activists to descend on the White House and “risk arrest to demand something simple and concrete from President Obama: that he refuse to grant a license for Keystone XL, a new pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico that would vastly increase the flow of tar sands oil through the U.S., ensuring that the exploitation of Alberta’s tar sands will only increase.” It must have seemed like a long shot at the time, but McKibben urged the prospective demonstrators on, pointing out that “Alberta’s tar sands are the continent’s biggest carbon bomb,” especially “dirty” to produce and burn in terms of the release of carbon dioxide and so the heating of the planet.

Just over four years later, the president, whose administration recently green-lighted Shell to do test-drilling in the dangerous waters of the American Arctic, opened the South Atlantic to new energy exploration and drilling earlier this year, and oversaw the expansion of the fracking fields of the American West, has yet to make, or at least announce, a final decision on that pipeline. Can anyone doubt that, if there had been no demonstrations against it, if it hadn’t become a major issue for his “environmental base,” the Keystone XL would have been approved without a second thought years ago? Now, it may be too late for a variety of reasons.

The company that plans to build the pipeline, TransCanada Corporation, already fears the worst — a presidential rejection that indeed may soon be in the cards. After all, we’ve finally hit the “legacy” part of the Obama era. In the case of war, the president oversaw the escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan soon after taking office, sent in the bombers and drones, and a year ago plunged the country back into its third war in Iraq and first in Syria.  

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

 

TransCanada quietly plots response as Keystone XL rejection seems imminent

TransCanada quietly plots response as Keystone XL rejection seems imminent

Alberta company consulting lawyers on possibly suing U.S. under NAFTA

A source involved in Keystone XL said the main suspense now is how Obama will make his big announcement about the pipeline: quietly, in a mid-summer Friday afternoon statement, or boldly from a platform like his upcoming Aug. 31 trip to a climate-change conference in Alaska.

A source involved in Keystone XL said the main suspense now is how Obama will make his big announcement about the pipeline: quietly, in a mid-summer Friday afternoon statement, or boldly from a platform like his upcoming Aug. 31 trip to a climate-change conference in Alaska. (The Associated Press)


The Canadian company involved in the controversy-plagued Keystone XL project has begun planning its response as indications mount the proposed oil pipeline will be rejected by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In its public statements, TransCanada Corp. is expressing hope Obama might still approve the pipeline, which over the course of its years-long delay has become an irritant between the U.S. and Canadian governments.

The rumour is that the decision to deny has been made, and they’re just waiting for the right time– Source involved in Keystone XL project

But people close to the project say the company has become all but convinced a rejection is imminent based on signals the White House is sending publicly and privately — and it’s now considering the next move.

One possible response is a challenge under the North American Free Trade Agreement to recoup damages from the U.S. government. Another is immediately re-filing a permit application with the U.S. State Department before the 2016 presidential election..

A source involved in the project said the company is consulting lawyers on the mechanics of a NAFTA challenge, and weighing the legal and political implications.

He said the main suspense now is how Obama will make his big announcement — quietly, in a mid-summer Friday afternoon statement, or boldly from a platform like his upcoming Aug. 31 trip to a climate-change conference in Alaska.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Permits Required to Build TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline in Jeopardy As Hearings Reveal Missteps

TransCanada’s decision to purchase all of the pipe needed to complete the Keystone XL Pipeline before receiving a presidential permit could prove a costly mistake.

Not only is President Obama expected to reject the permit TransCanada needs in order to cross the U.S.-Canadian border, the company must recertify an expired permit before it can install the pipeline though South Dakota as well.

At a hearing that began on July 29 in Pierre, South Dakota, the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is tasked to decide if it should recertify the company’s permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline through the state. Those opposing the Keystone XL, referred to as interveners, are making the case that TransCanada is not up to the job.

During the first week of the hearing, a mix of members of the grassroots group Dakota Rural Action, Native American tribes, individual landowners, and a team of all of the interveners’ lawyers began presenting testimony challenging TransCanada’s narrative that the Keystone XL “will be the safest pipeline ever built.” The interveners claim that is a public relations ploy far from the truth about TransCanada’s performance record.

TransCanada bears the burden to prove it is capable of following the rules that the PUC set when the original Keystone Pipeline permit was granted in 2010, so it is no surprise that the company objected to the interveners’ introduction of evidence that showed the company has had problems with its other recently constructed pipelines, including the Keystone XL’s southern route, renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline.

Lawyers for the interveners have also questioned the PUC’s impartially. They believe the commissioners’ pre-hearing rulings to exclude testimony relevant to their case was unjustified. But instead of letting the PUC’s move weaken their case, they laid the foundation during their examination of witnesses that enabled them to refer to the excluded documents in their cross-examination.

 

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

TransCanada Keystone XL Hits New Turbulence As South Dakota Permit Hearing Implodes Over Pipeline Corrosion, Market Demand

Holes too big to fix were poked in TransCanada’s narrative that its Keystone XLtar sands pipeline will be the safest pipeline ever built. And questions were raised about how the pipeline company’s financial dealings are set up duringPublic Utilities Commission hearings in Pierre, South Dakota this week where state regulators are tasked to decide if the company is capable of following the rules the state set when the original Keystone pipeline permit was granted in 2010.

A team of lawyers representing Native American tribes and the grassroots group Dakota Rural Action took the upper hand during the proceedings as they tried to have a TransCanada executive’s testimony impeached. The proceedings took on a circus-like atmosphere when TransCanada was unable to prevent lines of questioning it didn’t like.

The commissioners seemed unsure of its own procedures. At one point, Commissioner Gary Hanson expressed frustration that he was having trouble drawing a distinction between TransCanada’s evidence and its advertising statements.

The testimony of TransCanada’s key witness, Corey Goulet, president of Keystone Pipeline Projects, turned out to be an important centerpiece of the hearing.

In pretrial testimony filed by Goulet, he stated the company would have no problem meeting the Commission’s amended conditions.

However, TransCanada’s promises to build safe pipelines have been called into question with several high-profile incidents involving its existing pipelines, particularly the corrosion problems with the Keystone 1 pipeline.

TransCanada ‘root cause analysis’ document, made available online by DeSmog on Tuesday, shed troubling light on the external corrosion encountered on the Keystone 1.

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS’ DOCUMENT CREATES HEADACHESQUESTIONS FOR TRANSCANADA

When Goulet was questioned about the significant corrosion discovered on the Keystone 1 pipeline in Missouri in 2012 — when the pipeline’s wall had corroded in one spot to the thickness of a dime — he downplayed the incident, claiming that none of the defects were close to rupturing.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

Evidence Released at TransCanada’s Keystone XL Permit Renewal Hearing Sheds Light On Serious Pipeline Risks

Just because TransCanada continually states that the Keystone XL pipeline will be the safest pipeline ever built, doesn’t mean it is true.

The company’s pipeline construction record is facing intense scrutiny in America’s heartland, where many see no justifiable rationale to risk their water and agricultural lands for a tar sands export pipeline.

New documents submitted as evidence in the Keystone XL permitting process in South Dakota — including one published here on DeSmog for the first time publicly — paint a troubling picture of the company’s shoddy construction mishaps. This document, produced by TransCanada and signed by two company executives, details the results of its investigation into the “root cause” of the corrosion problems discovered on the Keystone pipeline.

TransCanada Corporation is continuing its push to build the northern route of the Keystone XL pipeline. On July 27, the company appeared at a hearing in Pierre, South Dakota, to seek recertification of the Keystone XLconstruction permit that expired last year.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission must decide if TransCanada can guarantee it can build the pipeline under the conditions set in 2010, which it must do in order to have the permit reapproved.

High-profile spills and other incidents already tar TransCanada’s safety record. The company faces at least two known ongoing investigations by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The incident records of thesouthern route of the Keystone XL (renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline) and the Keystone 1 Pipeline call into question TransCanada’s claim that its pipelines are among the safest ever built.

Over the last couple of years TransCanada’s public relations team, with the help of friendly regulators, have kept critical evidence away from the public and quashed many media inquiries.

But evidence of TransCanada’s poor performance continues to emerge. Earlier this year, DeSmog obtained documents

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

TransCanada cuts 185 jobs as it restructures

TransCanada cuts 185 jobs as it restructures

Pipeline company eliminates jobs to remain competitive and cut costs

Keystone XL proponent TransCanada Corp. has laid off 185 people in its major projects department, most of them in Calgary.

The jobs that were cut on Tuesday included about 100 full-time employees while the rest were contract workers.

As a pipeline operator, TransCanada has remained profitable through the oil downturn. In the first quarter, it earned $387 compared to $412 million for the same period in 2014. However, the industry it serves with its pipelines had a collective loss of more than $600 million over the same period.

In an e-mail, TransCanada’s spokesman, Mark Cooper said the company cut the positions as part of a restructuring  to control costs and remain competitive.

Cooper said TransCanada needs to provide low-cost services as its customers have been deeply affected by the current low-price environment that has left companies in the oilpatch struggling.

TransCanada is working to move forward on a number of projects, including the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Energy East pipeline.

Both projects have faced delays and regulatory hurdles. The company has about 6,000 employees across North America.

 

TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline Network Under Investigation by Federal Regulators

TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline Network Under Investigation by Federal Regulators

A month after revealing that TransCanada is under a compliance review for the Keystone 1 Pipeline, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration(PHMSA) disclosed it is also investigating the operations of Keystone XL‘s southern route, renamed the Gulf Coast Pipeline when the project was split in half.

The results of these investigations could play a part in President Obama’s final decision on the Keystone XL permit that TransCanada needs to complete its Keystone pipeline network. According to the State Department’s website, one of the factors the KXL presidential permit review process focuses on is compliance with relevant federal regulations.

At TransCanada’s latest shareholder meeting in Calgary, Evan Vokes, a former employee turned whistleblower,asked CEO Russ Girling why the company had not disclosed the ongoing investigations in its current annual report. Girling acknowledged that the company is under review, but assured shareholders that pipeline safety remains the company’s top priority.

After informing stockholders that another whistleblower recently disclosed documents showing that TransCanada had broken the same rules that Vokes exposed in 2010, he asked Girling what TransCanada had done to change things since Vokes worked for the company.

“To the extent that they [the regulators] find any issues with our corporation, we will change to evolve but at the current time there has been nothing put forward that we need to respond to,” Girling said. “Across 70,000 kilometers of pipeline and 64 billion dollars of rotating equipment, there are things we have to address everyday,” Girling said, without citing anything specific.

Vokes alleges TransCanada’s “culture of noncompliance” has not changed. Mounting pipeline failures, including theSuffield Lateral line in Alberta, Canada that failed

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Lobbying: The National Petroleum Council

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S NOT LOBBYING: THE NATIONAL PETROLEUM COUNCIL

The National Petroleum Council includes top executives from Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP America. It has an annual budget of $4.5 million collected from members, and pays its executive director $750,000 in salary and benefits. And it regularly “makes recommendations” to the U.S. Secretary of Energy — as in its recent report “Arctic Potential: Realizing the Promise of U.S. Arctic Oil and Gas Resources,” which advocates changes to regulations that “are limiting Arctic exploration activity.”

So the NPC looks, walks and quacks like lobbyists. But legally it’s a “federal advisory committee,” a little-known type of organization that in appearance and often in reality provides yet another way for corporations to get what they want out of the government.

There are more than 1,000 federal advisory committees, including one about organ transplantation. The Department of Energy alone has 21 others in addition to the NPC. In theory all these federal advisory committees could provide a useful way for a range of experts and regular people to provide feedback on complex issues like the fossil fuel industry. In practice, the NPC is dominated by the industry itself. Of the NPC’s 210 members (all selected by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and his predecessor), 173, or 82 percent, are from oil and gas companies, corporations that provide them support services, and large utility consumers.

You don’t even have to be a U.S. citizen or represent a U.S. corporation so long as you’re a big enough player in the oil industry — other members include Russell Girling, Canadian CEO and president of Transcanada (the company behind the Keystone XL); Canadian president and CEO of Enbridge, Al Monaco; and Michel Bénézit of the French multinational Total S.A. Members of the financial industry, such as the managing director of JPMorgan Securities, have a seat at the table as well.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Exclusive: TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot

Exclusive: TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot

Documents obtained by DeSmogBlog reveal an alarming rate of corrosion to parts of TransCanada’s Keystone 1 pipeline. A mandatory inspection test revealed a section of the pipeline’s wall had corroded 95%, leaving it paper-thin in one area (one-third the thickness of a dime) and dangerously thin in three other places, leading TransCanada to immediately shut it down. The cause of the corrosion is being kept from the public by federal regulators and TransCanada.

“It is highly unusual for a pipeline not yet two years old to experience such deep corrosion issues,” Evan Vokes, a former TransCanada pipeline engineer-turned-whistleblower, told DeSmogBlog. “Something very severe happened that the public needs to know about.”

When TransCanada shut the line down, the company and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) told the press that the shutdown was due to “possible safety Issues.” And although an engineer from PHMSA was sent to the site where TransCanada was digging up the pipeline in Missouri, no further information has been made available publicly.

Only after DeSmogBlog made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to PHMSA in August 2013 — which the agency partially responded to this April — was the information revealing the pipeline had deeply corroded in multiple spots exposed. The documents also disclosed a plan to check for a possible spill where the corrosion was detected.

However, documents explaining what caused the corrosion and findings concerning a possible spill were not included in response to DeSmogBlog’s request. According to PHMSA spokesman Damon Hill, documents that might impact an ongoing compliance review the agency is conducting of TransCanada were withheld.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

White House Confirms Obama Will Veto TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline

White House Confirms Obama Will Veto TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline

The White House confirmed today that President Obama will veto Congressional legislation designed to greenlight construction of the Keystone XLpipeline, the contentious project first proposed six years ago to carry more than 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian oilsands crude from Alberta to refineries and export facilities along the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite strong indications of support in Congress, the Obama Administration has already indicated it will veto the bill to expedite approval of the $8 billion project if approved. A similar bill was blocked by Democrats in the Senate in November.

If this bill passes this Congress the president won’t sign it either,” Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, said. Obama rejected TransCanada’s application to build the pipeline in 2012, suggesting congressional Republicans had set a “rushed and arbitrary deadline” for the project’s approval.

The bill, proposed by Republican Senator John Hoeven from North Dakota and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, will be debated in a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Wednesday with the panel set to vote on the project Thursday.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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