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Bloomberg reports that Canadians have come up with an all-Canadian route to get oil-sands crude from Alberta to a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick that will give Canada access, via supertanker, to the same Louisiana and Texas refineries Keystone was meant to supply. The pipeline, built by Energy East, will cost $10.7 billion and could be up and running by 2018. Its 4,600-kilometer path, taking advantage of a vast length of existing and underused natural gas pipeline, would wend through six provinces and four time zones. "It would be Keystone on steroids, more than twice as long and carrying a third more crude," writes Bloomberg. "And if you’re a fed-up Canadian, like Prime Minister Stephen Harper, there’s a bonus: Obama can’t do a single thing about it." So confident is TransCanada Corp., the chief backer of both Keystone and Energy East, of success that Alex Pourbaix, the executive in charge, spoke of the cross-Canada line as virtually a done deal. “With one project,” Energy East will give Alberta’s oil sands not only an outlet to “eastern Canadian markets but to global markets,” says Pourbaix. “And we’ve done so at scale, with a 1.1 million barrel per day pipeline, which will go a long way to removing the specter of those big differentials for many years to come.”
The pipeline will also prove a blow to environmentalists who have made central to the anti-Keystone arguments the concept that if Keystone can be stopped, most of that polluting heavy crude will stay in the ground. With 168 billion proven barrels of oil, though, Canada’s oil sands represent the third-largest oil reserves in the world, and that oil is likely to find its way to shore one way or another. “It’s always been clear that denying it or slowing Keystone wasn’t going to stop the flow of Canadian oil,” says Michael Levi. What Energy East means for the Keystone XL pipeline remains to be seen. “Maybe this will be a wake up call to President Obama and U.S. policymakers to say ‘Hmmm we’re going to get shut out of not just the energy, but all those jobs that are going to go into building that pipeline. Now they are all going to go into Canada," says Aaron Task. “This is all about ‘You snooze, you lose.’”
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Wednesday October 15 2014, @06:59PM
If this is more than a bluff, frankly, it serves us Americans right. We waited and delayed and waited and delayed some more.
The current administration has "studied" this pipeline so much that they ought to be able to construct it at a molecular level by now.
The Canadiens have been sufficiently patient. At some point they basically have to say "F**k them. We are gonna do it anyway, with or without their participation."
Once again, the people who get screwed the most by this are the middle and lower classes who will continue to pay ever higher prices for gasoline, and lose whatever temporary and permanent jobs the pipeline would have provided.
Yay Obama and the Environmental lobbies! Way to look out for the greater good!
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Wednesday October 15 2014, @07:48PM
At some point they basically have to say "F**k them, sorry. We are gonna do it anyway, with or without their participation, eh?"
ftfy
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 15 2014, @08:03PM
My response to FP [soylentnews.org] covers your points.
People who, in any way, think of this as "American energy" are missing the point.
Petroleum is a GLOBAL market; that shit won't stay here.
You also need to find some photos/video of what's left over after tar sands operations.
What was pristine wilderness becomes A MOONSCAPE.
The amount of water it takes to extract this shit is outrageous and the energy it takes to heat that water makes the net gain looks ridiculous.
There is no method currently being used to extract hydrocarbons that is more wasteful.
That this is being done demonstrates that we truly have reached Peak Oil.
...and when they're done with that water, they just leave that poisoned stuff in giant ponds.
(Now it's somebody else's problem.)
Where I am, we are in severe drought.
Seeing this abuse of water supplies really pisses me off.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 15 2014, @09:03PM
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday October 15 2014, @08:04PM
You know the U.S. was not the intended customer for that oil, right?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 16 2014, @12:52AM
Yes, and it still is. The refineries that can process it are limited.
Anyone who talks about the stuff leaving the refinery is missing the point, it's at world market prices regardless of where the faucet is.
The Texas refineries are hoping it comes, pipe or boat.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday October 16 2014, @01:57AM
It is still planned that it goes to the Texas refineries. As you said, the refineries that can process it are limited.
Likewise, anyone who thought it would give us cheap gas in the U.S. again was missing the point.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Wednesday October 15 2014, @08:04PM
Once again, the people who get screwed the most by this are the middle and lower classes who will continue to pay ever higher prices for gasoline
Our dependence on foreign petroleum has declined since peaking in 2005. [eia.gov] The US exported 41,640 barrels a day in 2010. [wikipedia.org]
The US is also the world's #1 oil producer. [wikipedia.org]
And have you bought any gasoline lately? The price has been dropping since July, it's under $3 a gallon here. Average US price is about $3.30.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 15 2014, @09:17PM
I saw that headline the other day and almost posted that point to this thread previously.
Seeing your comment caused me to look it up again.
* Less commuting by car to work
* Using public transit more
* Fewer moving from central cities to suburbs
* Fewer are getting driver's licenses
* Walkable communities are becoming more popular
Additionally, more and more cities are becoming more bicycle-friendly.
-- gewg_