It appears here the one being less than honest below is this Robert Jones-- shipping bitumen that has been "blended" with a Kerosene like by product called diluent that is needed to make the bitumen flow in a pipe is not refining. The refining process, and this is exactly the purpose of the Keystone-- will take place "downstream"(as the industry likes to call it) in Illinois. In other words, this press release on his part is Jones, working for TransCanada, trying to count on ignorance among people who would be aghast if they understood the facts. Disinformation is not a military policy only.
Union [AFL] statement follows article...
--M
TransCanada Defends Keystone Pipeline, Disputes Union Claims
Sep, 21 2007 - 1:10 PM
CALGARY/AM770CHQR - Calgary-based TransCanada Corporation is disputing criticism of its Keystone Pipeline project being levied at the company by trade unions and Alberta's NDP.
Robert Jones, Vice President of the Keystone Pipeline project, says the pipeline will not be shipping raw bitumen south of the border to be refined in the U.S.
"No, it cannot move raw bitumen. Raw bitumen has to be processed somehow in order to move into any pipeline. It's either upgraded or blended. Keystone cannot move raw bitumen and this is where the union is depicting it incorrectly."
He says the pipeline, which was approved Thursday by the National Energy Board, will move crude oil.
He says Keystone is needed.
"This is a critical piece of infrastructure the country requires because there's a lack of export pipeline capacity."
The $664 million dollar project will move over 400,000 barrells of crude per day to the U.S.
http://www.770chqr.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912&rem=75236&red=...
Implementation of full royalty report even more pressing in light of today's NEB decision to approve "bitumen highway" to U.S., says union leader
Without safeguards, Keystone pipeline will "act as a spigot draining
thousands of potential value-added jobs out of Alberta," says McGowan
EDMONTON, Sept. 20 /CNW/ - If Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach was looking for
another good reason to implement all of the recommendations put forward by his
government's blue-ribbon Royalty Review panel, the National Energy Board (NEB)
has given it to him.
In a ruling handed down late this afternoon at its Calgary headquarters,
the NEB gave the green light to a controversial mega-pipeline that will ship
more than 600,000 barrels of raw bitumen each day from Alberta to upgraders
and refineries in the American mid-west.
For the past year, two labour organizations - the Alberta Federation of
Labour (AFL) and the Communication, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) union - have
led the fight to stop the pipeline on the grounds it will ship literally
thousands of high-quality upgrader and refinery jobs down the pipeline along
with the bitumen.
"The bottom line is that every barrel of raw bitumen shipped to upgraders
and refineries in the U.S. is a barrel of bitumen that's not available for
Alberta-based upgrading or job creation," says McGowan.
"In effect, the NEB is allowing the creation of a 'bitumen superhighway'
that will take Alberta resources to refineries in the States. That may be
great news for the Americans, but it's bad news for anyone who believes, as we
do, that Albertans should be more than 'hewers of wood and drawers of water'."
In a letter sent to Premier Stelmach shortly after the NEB decision was
announced, McGowan argued that the NEB decision makes full implementation of
the royalty panel's recommendations more crucial than ever.
"Without safeguards like the proposed upgrader royalty credit, the
Keystone pipeline and others like it will act as a spigot draining thousands
of potential high-paying, value-added jobs from Alberta," wrote McGowan.
McGowan says that "more aggressive action" - like regulation or even
government ownership of projects - may be necessary to promote a "more
vigourous Alberta-based downstream petroleum industry." But he said an
upgrader royalty credit is the bare minimum of what should be done to keep
jobs and value-added production in the province.
McGowan will be one of several Alberta union leaders appearing at a NDP
news conference at the Legislature tomorrow morning to discuss the implication
of the NEB decision. The news conference is scheduled to take play in the
press gallery media room at 10:30 a.m.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2007/20/c3465.html
