Stupid oilsands schemes
Oilpatch welfare smacks of Don Getty years
By NEIL WAUGH, EDMONTON SUN
Tue, July 15, 2008
Premier Ed Stelmach was spreading the good news last week in hopes of deflecting any bad news he might get later this week when he meets his provincial counterparts in Quebec City.
"We need to spread the word," the premier told oil industry execs a day after unleashing $2 billion in oilpatch welfare, which had haunting echoes of the pump-priming Don Getty years.
"Our province is a reliable supplier of abundant energy produced in a responsible manner."
He didn't define "responsible" for obvious reasons.
"We see the oilsands as a long-term source of prosperity," he continued, "for our province and for our country."
Notice no mention of Union County, South Dakota, in all that self-administered back-slapping.
Then he talked about "investment, jobs and energy security over the long haul."
Yes, it is a long haul from Elk Point to Elk Point.
One is in Alberta, which Stelmach says is a "wonderful place to live, work and raise a family."
And the other is 40 km from Sioux City where a mysterious outfit called Hyperion Energy wants to hire up to 10,000 construction workers, 1,800 permanent employees and spend $10 billion building what's billed as the first new U.S. oil refinery in 20 years, all through the generosity of what a company blurb calls "our good neighbours to the north," who we are told "will become even more important to U.S. energy security."
That's because the company wants to ship 400,000 barrels a day of "mostly heavy crude from Alberta" as feedstock for Hyperion's little miracle in the cornfields.
IMPORTANT TO WHOM?
"The vision is clear," the company whooped. "Creating refinery capacity that is convenient to Canadian oilfields will be increasingly important."
The PR blurb didn't say to whom.
Now it appears that Houston-based Hyperion (emphasis on the first syllable) may be trading on air after a CNN special investigations unit was assigned to South Dakota on the weekend.
It could be one of those classic flips - not unheard of in oilsands plays - where a dummy company goes in and whips up local support and gets the approvals, then deals it off to Big Oil.
Except this isn't supposed to happen in Ed Stelmach's world (read above.)
Meanwhile, Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight may have won the race to the bottom with Environment Minister Rob Renner as the PCs' worst cabinet minister.
Renner denied Alberta farmers millions of bucks in carbon credit cheques this spring because he failed to set up an effective carbon exchange, where they could sell their zero tillage credits to oilsands and utility companies and help offset gas and diesel bills.
For his part, Knight, for the second year running, got a mandate letter from the premier where he was ordered generally to "enhance value-added activity" and specifically to "lead the initiative" to implement "strategies to increase upgrading and refining capacity in Alberta."
JOBS DOWN PIPELINE
It's all part of a "comprehensive energy strategy," which I suspect doesn't include sending 400,000 barrels a day of raw bitumen, 10,000 jobs and $10 billion in investment down the pipeline to Union County.
All Mel and his Knights of the Wobbly Table have announced so far is another goofy royalty giveaway like Don Getty used to come up with in the bad old days.
But it only gets worse for Ed's energy minister.
Enbridge last week suddenly announced it has shelved its Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico "Texas Access" pipeline, another job-stripper Knight is supposed to be battling against, blaming the oilsands' "supply profile."
But the company has now come up with a cockamamie scheme to reverse two pipelines and pump 150,000 barrels a day of Alberta bitumen all the way to Portland, Maine, then ship the gooey stuff to the Gulf. Now Knight and the Tories are sending jobs to Texas by the tanker load.
Stelmach described the Alberta oilsands as an "incredible story."
But when does incredible start sounding stupid?
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/07/15/6159306-sun.html
