We have to wait and see what the CEP and the AFL do to tackle this horrible (yet predictable) news... their campaigns against the pipeline has been in the forefront, and had it prevented the pipeline was also preventing the delivery of up to another half million barrels a day-- approximately the production of either the Suncor or Syncrude plants. Fight on all fronts!
--M
Keystone Pipeline gets Canadian approval
Sep 24, 2007 - 11:24:21 CDT
By the Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Canadian officials have approved the first leg of a pipeline that will carry as much as 590,000 barrels of crude oil daily through the Dakotas and other states to oil refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.
The $2 billion Keystone Pipeline, proposed by TransCanada Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, would stretch more than 1,800 miles from east-central Alberta to refineries in Illinois, with a spur to Oklahoma.
In North Dakota, the company proposes 218 miles of 30-inch pipeline in Cavalier, Pembina, Walsh, Nelson, Steele, Barnes, Ransom and Sargent counties.
TransCanada hopes to start construction next spring and complete it in 2009.
Canadian officials have given the company permission to ship oil to refineries in Illinois. In the U.S., TransCanada awaits federal and state regulatory approval.
The ruling covers the planned delivery of 435,000 barrels to refineries in Wood River and Patoka, Ill. TransCanada expects to ask later this year to carry the crude oil to a refinery in Oklahoma.
The Canadian approval ``means we can complete awarding of contracts and continue to progress with engineering and move toward a construction date in early 2008'' in Canada, said Shela Shapiro, a TransCanada official.
In December, the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission plans to gather documents and testimony from those on both sides of the pipeline issue, said Dusty Johnson, PUC chairman. The agency already has had eight meetings and four public hearings on TransCanada, he said.
North Dakota's Public Service Commission is considering whether to approve the route, with a decision expected by next month.
TransCanada officials have said they would be willing to consider changing plans to clear-cut an 85-foot-wide path through a scenic area near Fort Ransom, in southeastern North Dakota, and use a directional drilling process similar to what is planned through the Pembina Gorge area, instead of digging a trench.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/09/24/news/update/doc46f7e5...
