Keystone XL Project Ended - RIP

 

Keystone XL

A Canadian energy firm behind the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline said yesterday it would formally end the project. President Joe Biden revoked the company's permit to build an extension from Montana to Steele City, Nebraska, on his first day in office. 

The canceled line was planned as the fourth phase of the larger Keystone pipeline, which is currently operational (see map) and transports more than 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the US Gulf Coast. The already built line, which enters the US in North Dakota, remains operational. The addition would have increased capacity by roughly 800,000 barrels per day, or 7% of US daily consumption.

The Phase IV extension was originally opposed over its environmental impact in US Great Plains states, but became a proxy for the larger debate over climate change. See a timeline of the project here. 

Morning Brew 6-10-21

Canceled. The pipeline’s developer, TC Energy, said yesterday it was pulling the plug on the project after a decade-long game of tug of war over the pipeline's environmental impact.  

Keystone XL wasn’t exactly an active construction site. President Biden rescinded the pipeline’s construction permit on his first day in office, reflecting his administration’s commitment to fighting climate change. 

Why it matters: The announcement marks the end of a bitter feud that pitted environmentalists, Native American tribes, and farmers against Canadian officials and the energy industry. 

• The former group argued the pipeline would have widespread damaging effects on the environment, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and potentially leaking oil into a critical aquifer.
• Supporters of the pipeline said it would create thousands of well-paying construction jobs and bolster US energy security. 

Quick backstory

Well, not that quick considering the project was first announced all the way back in 2008. The plan was to build a pipeline carrying 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska, where it would link up with existing pipelines to carry it to Gulf Coast refineries.

President Obama delayed the project, then President Trump gave it the green light, until Biden squashed it again. Alberta had spent $1.1 billion on the project, and its demise will leave a bitter taste for Canadian leaders.

• “We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said.

Environmentalists and others who opposed the pipeline, meanwhile, are overjoyed that their years of public advocacy paid off. “It's a great day for Mother Earth," Larry Wright Jr., chairman of Nebraska’s Ponca Tribe, said. 

Biden Slammed Over Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Report

 Lie'n Biden (Keystone vs Russian Pipeline

Put America (Me and You) LAST

Biden Slammed Over Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Report: Shaping Up To Be ‘Most Pro-Russia’ President

By  Ryan Saavedra

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May 19, 2021 

Railroads Look to be Super Highway

 

Merger on the Orient Express

 

Yesterday, railroad operator Canadian Pacific announced plans to acquire Kansas City Southern for ~$25 billion.   This is a big deal, not just because it’s a deal that is big (the biggest M&A announced so far this year), but also because if regulators green-light it, the new company will have the first US-Mexico-Canada railroad.  Kansas City Southern’s routes run through Mexico and Texas to...Kansas City.  Canadian Pacific, which has a network that runs across Canada and some Northern US states, has been eyeing its railroad rival for years as a way to extend its own southern reach.  The deal may have some trouble with that regulatory green light; Canadian railroads have historically hit antitrust speed bumps in efforts to buy US companies.  Zoom out: The deal is a bet that North American trade will come roaring back as economies and factories flicker back to life. The USMCA trade agreement took effect last July and is expected to boost trade among the three countries.

the pipelines that are in the North American continent. Keystone XL - What's Really Going On

 This is a interesting map of the pipelines that are in the North American continent.  So if stopping the Keystone XL pipeline was about climate change why are the pipelines that are on this map still able to operate and supply oil.   There is more to the store than we will know!

 

https://www.enbridge.com/~/media/Enb/Documents/maps/EnbridgeBR%20Crude%20Oil%20MapFEB20.pdf?la=en

 

https://www.enbridge.com/reports/2020-liquids-pipelines-customer-handbook/maps

 

 

Rural Electric Companies Hit Hard by Keystone XL Cancellation

BY BOWEN XIAO

 

February 16, 2021 Updated: February 17, 2021

 

biggersmaller 

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This is part one of a series exploring the effects of President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

MURDO, S.D.—For more than a decade, Jeff Birkeland had been waiting expectantly in the hope that the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline would finally materialize and bring with it a much-needed boost to his rural community. His dreams were dashed overnight.

Birkeland is the CEO of West Central Electric Cooperative, which is located in Murdo, a small city in South Dakota with a population of less than 1,000. TransCanada, now known as TC Energy, the firm that commissioned the KXL pipeline, first approached his company back in 2008 

In 2011, he signed a contract with TC Energy to build a transmission line and two substations that would serve power along the KXL route. West Central Electric was meant to start producing power for pump stations along the XL route as early as November 2011, before the pipeline was put on hold.

In March 2019, then-President Donald Trump granted TC Energy a presidential permit to construct and operate the XL pipeline. Biden revoked that permit via executive order in one of his first moves as president.

“It basically shut a lot of what we were doing down overnight,” Birkeland told The Epoch Times. “We’re out $90 million, that’s what that means to us.”

Electric co-ops are private companies that deliver electricity to their customers, also known as members. Rural electric cooperatives serve 56 percent of the nation and account for about 12 percent of total electricity sales in the United States, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

There are multiple co-ops in the area that range in size in terms of employees and areas they cover. West Central Electric has more than 3,671 members and covers more than 7,000 square miles, and Birkeland said the cancellation of the project hits small rural communities like Murdo especially hard 

“We have been working on this project on and off—through the starts and stops and delays—for about 12 to 13 years now,” Talich told the Epoch Times. “We put a lot of time into it … so it was a little disappointing to see something like that pulled away with a swipe of a pen and 10 minutes after [Biden was] sworn in.

“I would like to see it revived, it would help the local communities a lot,” he added. “Again, it’s what Washington wants to do—they don’t care about us out here too much.”

Biden’s executive order states that the KXL pipeline “disserves the U.S. national interest,” arguing that the country is facing a “climate crisis.” The Biden administration has made combating climate change a key part of its agenda and has often talked about creating renewable energy jobs and reducing emissions.

TC Energy has stated that its intention to make the pipeline project emissions-neutral. The company announced in a Jan. 17 statement before Biden signed the executive order that it would “achieve net zero emissions across the project operations” when the pipeline is in service in 2023. TC also committed to operations being “fully powered by renewable energy sources no later than 2030.” 

As part of the announcement, TC Energy stated it was also expected to invest more than $1.7 billion in communities along the KXL footprint and would create “approximately 1.6 gigawatts of renewable electric capacity, and thousands of construction jobs in rural and Indigenous communities.”

The $1.7 billion investment is big enough in itself, said Birkeland, who pointed out that many of the transmission lines in the country are old. He said about 70 percent of West Central’s transmission lines were built in the 1950s and are still being used today.

“This brings opportunity to upgrade our old transmission lines and substations, put in some new renewables,”
Birkeland said. “That’s what we all want—it makes sense, it’s a win-win, and it reduces the carbon footprint.” 

Birkeland said he’s still optimistic about the Keystone project and hopes to be able to sit down and speak with Biden. He wants to explain his side of the story to the president and hopes to hear Biden’s point of view. No one from the Biden administration has yet reached out to the affected communities to discuss the project, he said. 

The Biden administration didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment by press time.

Meanwhile, electric co-ops themselves are relying more on renewable sources. There has been an increase in the use of natural gas and renewable energy, which has helped to reduce the co-ops’ carbon dioxide emissions by 18 percent from 2009 to 2019, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Keeping electricity rates down is key for co-ops, since these companies serve “92 percent of persistent-poverty counties in America,” according to the association. The opportunity that the pipeline would have provided would have been a “key pillar” to reducing the company’s electricity rates, Birkeland said.

“The larger revenue base you have, you get to spread your expenses out,” he said. “That’s just simple economics. It makes your rates lower. When the administration talks about wanting to create new jobs—here it is.”

There are also countless other local businesses in Murdo, as well as in nearby towns and cities, that had spent money to juice up their businesses in response to the construction of the KXL pipeline. Now, their money and their investments have gone down the drain, Birkeland said.

Follow Bowen on Twitter: @BowenXiao_