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Emails: How State Department Secretly Approved Expanding Piece of Enbridge’s “Keystone XL Clone”
Emails: How State Department Secretly Approved Expanding Piece of Enbridge’s “Keystone XL Clone”
DeSmogBlog has obtained dozens of emails that lend an inside view of how the U.S. State Department secretly handed Enbridge a permit to expand the capacity of its U.S.-Canada border-crossing Alberta Clipper pipeline, which carries tar sands diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) from Alberta to midwest markets.
The State Department submitted the emails into the record in the ongoing case filed against the Department by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Collectively, the emails show that upper-level State Department officials hastened the review process on behalf of Enbridge for its proposed Alberta Clipper expansion plan, now rebranded Line 67, and did not inform the public about it until it published its final approval decision in the Federal Register in August 2014.
According to a March 17, 2014 memo initially marked “confidential,” Enbridge’s legal counsel at Steptoe & Johnson, David Coburn, began regular communications with the State Department on what the environmental groups have dubbed an “illegal scheme” beginning in at least January 2014.
Image Credit: U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
Environmental groups have coined the approval process an “illegal scheme” because the State Department allowed Enbridge to usurp the conventionalpresidential permit process for cross-border pipelines, as well as the standard National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, which allows for public comments and public hearings of the sort seen for TransCanada’s KeystoneXL pipeline.
Further, the scheme is a complex one involving Enbridge’s choice to add pressure pump stations on both sides of the border to two pipelines, Enbridge Line 3 andEnbridge Line 67, to avoid fitting under the legal umbrella of a “cross-border” pipeline.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Greek “White Knight” Emerges: Putin To Give Athens €5 Billion For Advance Gas Pipeline Fees
The Greek “White Knight” Emerges: Putin To Give Athens €5 Billion For Advance Gas Pipeline Fees
With Greece teetering on the edge of insolvency and forced to raid pension and most other public funds, ahead of another month of heavy IMF repayments which has prompted even the ECB to speculate Greece should introduce a parallel “IOU” currency, a white knight has appeared out of nowhere for Greece, one who may offer $5 billion in urgently needed cash. The white knight is none other than Vladimir Putin. “Just because Greece is debt-ridden, this does not mean it is bound hand
and foot, and has no independent foreign policy,” Putin said previously.
According to Spiegel, citing a senior figure in the ruling Syriza party, Greece is poised to sign a gas deal with Russia as early as Tuesday which could bring up to €5 billion into the depleted Greek coffers.
The move could now “turn the tide” for the debt-stricken country according to a senior Greek official.
As Reuters adds, during a visit to Moscow earlier this month, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras expressed interest in participating in a pipeline that would bring Russian gas to Europe via Turkey and Greece.
Under the proposed deal, Greece would receive advance funds from Russia based on expected future profits linked to the pipeline. The Greek energy minister said last week that Athens would repay Moscow after 2019, when the pipeline is expected to start operating.Greek government officials were not immediately available to comment on the Spiegel report.
Of course, this being Greece, the probability of actual repayment is negligible: after all the likelihood of a Greek default is astronomical, and €5 billion will do little to change the mechanics of Greek debt sustainability. And Putin very well knows this.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Premiers told to rethink pipelines as they meet on climate
Pembina Institute argues projects such as Energy East would boost oilsands production and carbon emissions
The Pembina Institute is warning premiers and territorial leaders they need to think about the effects of pipelines on Canada’s carbon emissions before they think about an energy strategy for the country.
A new report by the think-tank says building new oil pipelines, such as the Energy East project to bring western oil east, could produce more carbon pollution and wipe out a lot of the work the provinces have already done to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
- Ontario joins Quebec, Calif. in cap-and-trade system to cut emissions
- Ottawa says provinces won’t hit their greenhouse gas targets
The report was released Tuesday, as the premiers and territorial leaders meet to discuss climate change in Quebec City.
“The oilsands is Canada’s fastest-growing source of carbon emissions,” says the report. “That means infrastructure proposals such as the Energy East pipeline have significant impact on the federation’s ability to meet climate change objectives.”
The report, titled Crafting an Effective Canadian Energy Strategy, calls 2015 a year of reckoning.
By the fall, governments around the world must reveal their concrete plans to cut carbon emissions for the next decade at an international UN climate change conference in Paris. The initial deadline was March 31, which Canada missed.
National targets coming in June, Harper says
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised that Canada will release its targets for the next decade by June in advance of the meeting.
But the executive director of the Pembina Institute, Ed Whittingham, says Canada is lagging on its promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.
“It’s nip and tuck as to whether Canada will come anywhere close to reaching its 2020 target,” Whittingham said in an interview with CBC News.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Quebec City climate-change march draws 25,000 people
March is in advance of premiers’ summit next wee
A climate-change march drew about 25,000 people to the streets of Quebec City on Saturday, as protesters try to encourage premiers to take a tougher stance on climate and pipeline regulations.
- Energy East pipeline project changes encouraging, expert says
- Dramatic photos of Vancouver oil spill spark pipeline outrage on social media
The march was organized by Act On Climate — a coalition of groups including environmental groups, unions, students and aboriginal groups.
It’s in preparation for a premiers’ summit on climate change which will take place on Tuesday, April 14.
The focus is a greener strategy for Canada’s provinces and territories.
About 100 buses were driven to the rally with many passengers from different parts of Quebec. Once there, they marched for about three kilometres to the National Assembly.
Protesters wore red and arranged themselves so that from the sky it looked like a bursting thermometer.
Protesters against pipelines
High on the list of demands from the group is stopping the building of new pipelines, including Keystone, Energy East, and Northern Gateway.
Serge Simon, the grand chief of Kanesatake, said Quebec environmentalists should look to British Columbia.
“You could take the example of the B.C. premier [Christy Clark]. The B.C. premier had a lot of pressure brought to them and they put these conditions that stopped Northern Gateway,” he said.
“The premier of Quebec [Philippe Couillard] can do the same thing if he stops catering to big corporate interests. I don’t see why he can’t do this.”
Saturday’s march concluded with a concert featuring Les Respectables, Yann Perreau and Sarah Harmer.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Kiev, Moscow, Bonds and Haircuts
Kiev, Moscow, Bonds and Haircuts
When money managers talk outside their narrow field, nonsense is guaranteed to ensue. No better example than this Bloomberg piece on Ukraine’s ‘debt restructuring’ plans, which are as much a political tool as they are anything else at all. Ukraine’s American Finance Minister has announced a broad restructuring plan with a wide range of severe haircuts for creditors, and she – well, obviously – wishes to include Russia in the group of creditors who are about to get their heads shaved.
And despite all obvious angles to the issue that are not purely economical, Bloomberg presents a whole array of finance professionals who are free to spout their entirely irrelevant opinions on the topic. If you didn’t know any better, you’d be inclined to think that perhaps Russia is indeed just another creditor to Kiev.
Putin Plays Wildcard as Ukraine Bond Restructuring Talks Begin
As Ukraine begins bond-restructuring talks, it finds itself face-to-face with a familiar foe: Russia. President Vladimir Putin bought $3 billion of Ukrainian bonds in late 2013. The cash was meant to support an ally, then-President Yanukovych.
That is, for starters, a far too narrow way of putting it. Russia simply wanted to make sure Ukraine would remain a stable nation, both politically and economically, because A) it didn’t want a failed state on its borders and B) it wanted to ensure a smooth transfer of its gas sales to Europe through the Ukraine pipeline systems. Whether that would be achieved through Yanukovych or someone else was a secondary issue. Putin was never a big fan of the former president, but at least he kept the gas flowing.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Forget About Keystone XL – Canadian Crude Is Coming
Forget About Keystone XL – Canadian Crude Is Coming
While Congress and the White House continue to wrangle over the Keystone XL pipeline extension, the oil industry is taking matters into its own hands.
Markets are primed for an influx of Canadian crude oil, but with pipeline transport off the table for the foreseeable future, producers have built alternative modes to meet the demand. The problem is, recent disasters have soured legislators and environmentalists on road and rail for moving oil.
Alongside political uncertainties are other wild cards like extreme weather and the unknowns that arise from an emerging logistics infrastructure, which can all impact the flow of goods. That makes the proposition of a non-pipeline solution particularly thorny. How should supply chain decision makers position to connect with premium energy markets, manage the attendant risks, while also addressing the strong likelihood of an increased regulatory burden?
Related: Recent “Bomb Trains” Expose Regulatory Failures
From the source of the commodity to the end consumer, the ability to track Canadian oil assets in real-time is set to become more important than ever.
Boom Times For Oil Producers
Production from Canada’s oil sands is on the rise, with output expected to nearly double by 2030 to 6.7 million barrels per day. That accounts for about 98% of the country’s oil reserves.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
This Week In Energy: Low Oil Prices Not The Only Threat To US Energy
This Week In Energy: Low Oil Prices Not The Only Threat To US Energy.
Urgent Note: This week, our analyst Dan Dicker provides key insights into the companies now considered to be the walking dead in the energy space. The debt burdens of these companies make for a bleak outlook, and this information is need-to-know for all investors, so they can spot the trend that is taking these companies down and protect their own investment portfolios accordingly. Dan’s report is a must read for those interested in the bigger picture of the low oil price situation and you can receive it for Free – just click here and start a 30 day free trial to Oilprice Premium.
With the war against the Islamic State (IS) raging in Iraq and Syria, and getting too close to Turkey for comfort, experts in the US are wondering if the next terrorist attack on American soil might target the 182,000 miles of pipelines carrying oil, chemicals and other hazardous liquids, 325,000 miles of bulk natural gas pipelines, and 2.2 million miles of natural gas distribution pipelines.
These millions of miles of critical infrastructure make for easy targets. All it requires is that the digital intruder gets close enough to privately owned pipelines that the government doesn’t have much control over.
As noted earlier this week by Bloomberg, a 2008 attack on Turkey’s portion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is now being viewed as a model for future calamity in the US. The pipeline—majority owned by BP—saw digital intruders inject malicious software into the control network and then tamper with the system to cause an explosion. It’s only now that investigators realize that it was a cyberattack.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Canada aboriginals ready to challenge energy projects, new chief says | Canada | Reuters
Canada aboriginals ready to challenge energy projects, new chief says | Canada | Reuters.
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Canada’s indigenous peoples will not hesitate to use courts, political channels and activism to halt pipelines, mines or other resource projects they oppose, the new head of the country’s main aboriginal group said on Thursday.
Perry Bellegarde, who was elected national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) on Wednesday, said aboriginals do not oppose development in general, but want to be involved in projects from the outset.
Canada’s 1.4 million aboriginals have clashed with industry and the government in recent years over development of resource projects on their traditional territories.
“If industry and governments are serious about … wanting to create economic development, we need to be included and involved, and our rights and (land) title respected,” Bellegarde said in an interview with Reuters. “If we’re excluded, nothing will move. Nothing will happen.”
Bellegarde said that if legal and political strategies fail, aboriginals will turn to activism, but would not specify if this means peaceful protests or civil disobedience.
Aboriginals want jobs, equity ownership and revenue-sharing, but also to protect the environment, he said, adding that he and the AFN “need to do homework” to determine what specifically aboriginals want from resource projects.
Major projects that are being challenged by aboriginal groups include Enbridge Inc’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to British Columbia’s Pacific Coast.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Stop Stephen Harper’s Assault on our National Parks | Elizabeth May
Stop Stephen Harper’s Assault on our National Parks | Elizabeth May.
Unlike our current Prime Minister’s attack on climate policy and push for every pipeline and tanker in sight, this one is flying under the radar. In fact, Conservative Party talking points make great claims of having expanded the national park system.
The following is from the Conservative Party website:
Since 2006, the Government has taken significant action to protect our natural areas, including taking steps to add more than 160,000 square kilometres to the Canadian federal parks and marine conservation system — a more than 58 per cent increase…
And it is actually true that new parks, especially in the far north have added huge tracts of lands to the parks. But like a Trojan horse, within this gift is the destruction of the standards of ecological integrity that are necessary to maintain national parks — our highest order of conservation and protection.
I have already written of the disaster that is Sable Island National Park in Nova Scotia. This iconic island is famous for its dunes and wild ponies. I was the only MP to oppose the legislation that allowed for seismic testing inside the park and directional oil and gas drilling under it. The legislation for Sable Island National Park places the Canada-Nova Scotia Off-shore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) as the key regulator. The CNSOPB only has to inform Parks Canada about oil and gas activities inside the park; not consult even consult in advance.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
RIGZONE – The US Energy Infrastructure: Is it Safe?
RIGZONE – The US Energy Infrastructure: Is it Safe?.
First, the good news regarding energy transportation in the United States: about 99.5 percent of all material transported by either railroad cars or by pipelines reaches its destination. However, the accident rate is still too high, and it is even up slightly for gas liquids, even when adjusted for volumes and miles traveled. And most pipeline incidents are happening on new pipeline systems, not older ones, according to speakers at a recent Energy Symposium hosted by the University of Houston. In recent years, with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in unconventional shale formations becoming the new norm, production levels for crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids have shot up, leaving the industry racing in the wake to build an infrastructure to catch up. The quantity and quality of pipeline networks across the country varies, with Texas and the Gulf Coast region having a more established pipeline system than states like North Dakota, where natural gas production from the Bakken shale formation routinely overwhelms the existing infrastructure and soon becomes necessary in the Bakken and in other formations to consider other infrastructure options, Steve Magness, partner at Cogent Energy Solutions, noted. – See more at: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136089/The_US_Energy_Infrastructure_Is_it_Safe#sthash.jYezdmsu.dpuf
