That Pipeline

[trysail]

Canada Approves Two Pipelines
by Robert Tuttle
December 1, 2016
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...dd-pipeline-out-as-canada-approves-two-others

* Approval of Trans Mountain, Line 3 Adds Capacity Through 2036
* With Keystone XL approval close, Energy East seen as redundant

The Canadian government’s approval of two major oil export pipelines may mean the death knell for a third.

For more than two years, TransCanada Corp.’s proposed 1.1 million barrel-a-day Energy East pipeline, designed to run from Alberta to New Brunswick, has been mired in regulatory hearings and opposition from environmentalists. Now, the hurdles it faces may be even higher after Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain expansion and Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 replacement were both cleared for operation by the Canadian government on Tuesday.

When combined with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to quickly approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Trans Mountain and Line 3 will add enough capacity to handle Canada’s oil production for 20 years, according to National Energy Board projections. That makes Energy East redundant, according to Steve Belisle, a fund manager at Manulife Asset Management in Montreal.

“It’s becoming an even more remote possibility that Energy East goes ahead,” Belisle said in a telephone interview. “Why go through the political hassles at this stage. I don’t think that TransCanada has a lot of appetite for this.”

Extending Trans Mountain to the British Columbia coastline and expanding Line 3, which carries crude to the U.S. Midwest, will add 960,000 barrels in capacity a day. TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline to the Gulf Coast is designed to carry 830,000 barrels a day.

Expand Access

TransCanada applied to build Energy East two years ago as Canadian oil producers looked to expand access to markets beyond the U.S., where nearly all Canada’s oil is sold and where a surge of shale oil production depressed prices. The aim was to open access for Western Canadian oil producers to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing Alberta’s crude to be sold in Europe.

Slated to cost C$15.7 billion ($11.9 billion), the line would have been the largest in North America carrying oil. It faced an uncertain future after National Energy Board reviewers assessing the project stepped down in September amid allegations that the regulatory process was tarnished, and after violent protests forced a halt to hearings.

Still, TransCanada remains committed to the project, Tim Duboyce, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail Wednesday.

“Energy East remains of critical strategic importance because it will end the need for refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick to import hundreds of thousands of barrels of foreign oil every day, while improving overseas market access for Canadian oil,” Duboyce wrote the day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Trans Mountain and Line 3 approvals.

Added Capacity

Enbridge’s C$7.5 billion Line 3 replacement is scheduled to go into operation in 2019, allowing the company to restore the pipeline’s original 760,000 barrel-a-day capacity after it was cut by almost half in 2010. Kinder Morgan filed to expand Trans Mountain three years ago, seeking to almost triple its capacity to 890,000 barrels, and allowing increased exports to Asia.

While Energy East could still be approved after Tuesday’s decision, it “may take a bit more time” and require the holding of provincial elections in Quebec, said Tim Pickering, a founder at Calgary-based Auspice Capital Advisors. Pickering said he believes the pipeline should be approved “in the interest of Canada’s energy security. We are selling oil at such a great discount because we have one buyer for our oil,” he said.

In December last year, TransCanada increased the projected cost after addressing the concerns of communities and making almost 700 route changes. The company also eliminated a proposed marine export terminal in Quebec amid concern the facility would harm endangered beluga whales.


more...



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[thør]

Not all oil is created equally. Hummmm. If a refinery has a choice....refine good crude or tar sands, and both is the same price per barrel, which will they do? End of story.

Refineries are built for specific types of oil.

 

[trysail]

Ignoring the Rule Of Law

(AP)...Energy Transfer Partners got federal permits for the pipeline in July, about two years after it was announced...

...The Corps of Engineers granted Energy Transfer Partners the permits needed for the crossing in July, but the federal government decided in September that further analysis was warranted given the tribe's concerns. Then came Sunday's decision from the Army, which oversees the Corps...
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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f333...ry-urges-trump-approve-dakota-access-pipeline

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[about_average]

Ignoring the Rule Of Law

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

 

[trysail]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyYNhK3UkAA4pe1.jpg:large


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[Ishmael]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyYNhK3UkAA4pe1.jpg:large


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Good one.

Wanna bet on how long it's going to take the Corps of Engineers to change their mind after Jan. 19th?

Ishmael

 

[about_average]

Ignoring the Rule Of Law

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

 

[trysail]

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

If you can't figure that out, you're either dumber than a box of rocks or you're beyond any hope. The Army Corps of Engineers approved the project in July.

The operator complied with every requirement, received the required permits, expended nearly $3,900,000,000 and completed the pipeline (excepting one mile).


​

 

[about_average]

If you can't figure that out, you're either dumber than a box of rocks or you're beyond any hope. The Army Corps of Engineers approved the project in July.

The operator complied with every requirement, received the required permits, expended nearly $3,900,000,000 and completed the pipeline (excepting one mile).

So you're saying the Army Corps didn't have the authority to cancel it.

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

 

[Conager]

Refineries are built for specific types of oil.

That makes sense.

Question:

I'm not sure I'm even approaching the question right but I assume that levels of impurities thickness and what is actually in the oil varies?

Could one type of refinery say set up for oild sands extractedboil handle an "easier" to crack oil ( if that's even the correct way of looking at it) like light, sweet crude, but not the reverse?

How hard is it to convert a Refinery to do something different?

 

[Lancecastor]

How hard is it to convert a Refinery to do something different?

Ishmael used to be a catalytic cracker.

 

[Conager]

Ishmael used to be a catalytic cracker.

Yo, that's racist!

 

[Hard_Rom]

I would like to see the Energy East pipeline go through. We need to stop shipping crude to the US and then buying it back as gasoline. Add the value here in Canada and energize the east coast refineries. Need to expand our customer base beyond the US to China and Europe.

A bit of a dilemma for me being a tree hugger and a nationalist. But if we are going to extract it the Yanks shouldn't get to add the value. Let them buy it as a final end product.

The dependence on natural gas for fertilizers is a big issue. Damn hard to feed the world without natural gas as a feedstock for chemical production.

This is why we elect politicians to make the hard decisions and compromises.

Energy independence, jobs, safety, local issues (NIMBY), environment degradation...

 

[Ishmael]

Good one.

Wanna bet on how long it's going to take the Corps of Engineers to change their mind after Jan. 19th?

Ishmael

Just to reiterate and without commenting on legalities.

"Any administrative decision can be overturned by yet another administrative decision."

That pipeline will go through.

Ishmael

 

[trysail]

That makes sense.

Question:

I'm not sure I'm even approaching the question right but I assume that levels of impurities thickness and what is actually in the oil varies?

Could one type of refinery say set up for oild sands extractedboil handle an "easier" to crack oil ( if that's even the correct way of looking at it) like light, sweet crude, but not the reverse?

How hard is it to convert a Refinery to do something different?

The refiners of Athabaskan oil sands such as Suncor have purpose built facilities specifically designed to separate and upgrade that feedstock into Synthetic Crude Oil. The facilities are immensely expensive.

Traditional refineries are also limited to specific feedstock slates depending on, among other characteristics, viscosity and sulfur content.



http://www.outboardmotoroilblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/oilbarrelgraph.JPG

Somewhat dependent on the feedstock, in a highly complex modern refinery, the gasoline yield can be well north of 50%. Fluid catalytic crackers, reformers, cokers and hydrocracking units are critical elements of a complex refinery configuration; these units are almost universal in the U.S. since environmental regulations have had the effect of eliminating competition because only the very deep-pocketed have the wherewithal to invest the gargantuan sums that have been required to comply with the requirements.

In fact, the ( very ) rough calculation used as an indicator of refining margins, the widely quoted 3:2:1 crack spread, assumes yields of gasoline/heating oil of 66 2/3% and 33 1/3%, respectively.


There are 42 gallons to the barrel. Here are market prices from several years ago and a calculation of refining margins:

$77.36... Nymex Crude Future ($/bbl.)
$1.84..... Nymex Crude Future ($/gal.) = $3.07 Retail ($/gal.)
$2.14......Nymex Heating Oil ($/gal.)
$89.95... Nymex Heating Oil ($/bbl.)
$2.16..... Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future ($/gal.) = $2.79 Retail ($/gal.)
$90.88... Nymex RBOB Gasoline Future ($/bbl.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_spread
3-2-1 Crack Spread:
$13.21


$2.16......Nymex Gasoline
$1.84......(minus) Nymex Crude
$0.32..... =Implied Refining Cost (per gallon)


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/RefineryFlow.png

Anybody who states that petroleum refining technology isn't complex displays a profound ignorance and immediately loses all credibility. As the average barrel of petroleum has gotten heavier (i.e., more viscous) over time, refining complexity has grown. Extremely high temperatures and pressures are required to "crack" today's average barrel into the lighter components (i.e., gasoline and aviation fuel) which are in demand and to reduce sulphur and volatile organic compounds. Hydrocracking and catalytic cracking allow higher yields of premium fuels. Refineries also produce the aromatic and olefin feedstocks for the entire petrochemical manufacturing chain that underlies everything from plastics to lubricants. Adding to the nightmarish complexity of refinery operations and logistics are the multiple grades of gasoline required by various states and localities and seasonal environmental requirements that necessitate the blending of oxygenates (such as MTBE— which was mandated by the U.S. Congress several years ago). Seasonal factors affect refinery operations as heating oil inventories must be built each summer in anticipation of winter, while gasoline inventories are required to meet summer demand for gasoline. Catalysts must be periodically recharged requiring that refineries be taken offline.

Historically, refining has not been a very profitable undertaking. Margins are extremely volatile and a refining operation has little-to-no control over either imput costs (i.e., crude) or product revenues (i.e., wholesale prices for heating oil, gasoline, diesel fuel or aviation fuel).

Motiva, for example, added 325,000 barrels per day of new capacity (essentially, a doubling of capacity) several years ago to its existing Port Arthur (Texas) refinery. Port Arthur expansion cost: $17,000,000,000 (a/k/a SEVENTEEN BILLION dollars).

There's a simple reason there haven't been any "greenfield" refineries built in over twenty years; it is absolutely and utterly impossible to get permits. It is much easier and more efficient to expand existing refinery capacity. This is a business that requires enormous amounts of capital and there are undeniable economies of scale.

Refineries that have been removed from service (primarily due to their small size) are typically converted into storage facilities or terminals. Owners are loathe to shutter them completely because of the ginormous remediation costs.

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[Hard_Rom]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sands#Canada_3

The extra-heavy crude oil or crude bitumen extracted from oil sands is a very viscous semisolid form of oil that does not easily flow at normal temperatures, making it difficult to transport to market by pipeline. To flow through oil pipelines, it must either be upgraded to lighter synthetic crude oil (SCO), blended with diluents to form dilbit, or heated to reduce its vicosity.

The demand for condensate for oil sands diluent is expected to be more than 750,000 bbl/d (119,000 m3/d) by 2020, double 2012 volumes. Since Western Canada only produces about 150,000 bbl/d (24,000 m3/d) of condensate, the supply was expected to become a major constraint on bitumen transport. However, the recent huge increase in US tight oil production has largely solved this problem, because much of the production is too light for US refinery use but ideal for diluting bitumen.

The surplus American condensate and light oil is being exported to Canada and blended with bitumen, and then re-imported to the US as feedstock for refineries. Since the diluent is simply exported and then immediately re-imported, it is not subject to the US ban on exports of crude oil. Once it is back in the US, refineries separate the diluent and re-export it to Canada, which again bypasses US crude oil export laws since it is now a refinery product.

To aid in this process, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is reversing its Cochin Pipeline, which used to carry propane from Edmonton to Chicago, to transport 95,000 bbl/d (15,100 m3/d) of condensate from Chicago to Edmonton by mid-2014; and Enbridge is considering the expansion of its Southern Lights pipeline, which currently ships 180,000 bbl/d (29,000 m3/d) of diluent from the Chicago area to Edmonton, by adding another 100,000 bbl/d (16,000 m3/d).

 

[about_average]

Ignoring the Rule Of Law

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

 

[trysail]

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

Thank you for confirming that you are, in fact, dumber than a box of rocks.


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[phrodeau]

Which law, specifically, did the Army Corp of Engineers ignore?

Why, the Rule of Law. Isn't it blindingly obvious?

 

[Hard_Rom]

The rule of law is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials. It primarily refers to the influence and authority of law within society, particularly as a constraint upon behaviour, including behaviour of government officials.

The principle makes no reference to citizen's actions. Citizen actions and opinions may influence governments. That is democracy and is hardly arbitrary.

 

[about_average]

Thank you for confirming that you are, in fact, dumber than a box of rocks.

You can't cite it so you make lame insults.

Try paraphrasing the law they violated. Maybe you can manage that.

The rule of law is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials. It primarily refers to the influence and authority of law within society, particularly as a constraint upon behaviour, including behaviour of government officials.

The principle makes no reference to citizen's actions. Citizen actions and opinions may influence governments. That is democracy and is hardly arbitrary.

The same Wikipedia also says "Rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including law makers themselves."
That's all I'm asking, what law did they violate?

Trysail obviously doesn't know.

 

[Hypoxia]

"Rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including law makers themselves."

The effective "Rule of Law" is whatever cops do that courts allow from what legislators wrote. If cops don't bust lawmakers, they're immune. If courts don't punish rogue cops and lawmakers, they're immune. If judges aren't impeached, they're immune. The legal system takes good care of itself. The "rule of law" is what happens to us.

 

[trysail]

The Dakota Access Pipeline And Rule Of Law

by Brian McNicoll

I was wasting time on Facebook the other night when the absurdity of what’s going on in North Dakota finally fully occurred to me.

I’m arguing with this guy, saying it’s ridiculous protesters are stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline. The oil is needed. The project is safe. The claims that it disrupts historically significant tribal lands has been thoroughly debunked.

“You don’t understand,” the guy finally says. “We don’t tell the white man where our sacred places are. We keep it a secret.”

Say what?

So it’s just where you say it is, and you don’t say it’s there until someone threatens to turn a buck nearby? Over the seven years and millions of dollars the company spent consulting with tribes and other stakeholders, lining up the very latest in pipeline-building technology, working with communities from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and finally to its end, 1,200 miles away in Illinois to iron out the best route, you just don’t feel comfortable mentioning the sacred burial grounds and potential water sources you see as endangered?

At some point, if we’re still more than a banana republic, this has to end.

This pipeline meets a huge need. The fields of Western North Dakota, which produced 300,000 barrels per day in 2001, turn out 1 million per day now. The added production has overwhelmed the railroad industry. Costs have risen from $50 to $1,400 per car, and South Dakota’s grain farmers are having trouble getting their products to market.

It’s nowhere near any sacred tribal lands, and the useful idiots at the front of the Native American groups leading the protest know this. It’s not on their property – or really even all that close to it. It doesn’t threaten their water supply – the pipeline has to cross the Missouri River somewhere, and it makes that crossing safely by passing more than 90 feet underneath. Unless the technology fails in this case and gravity is defeated for 90 full feet, there is no threat here to the river, and everyone knows it.

It’s a 100 percent sham, and the Obama administration – with the sad predictability of a tattered and torn administration stumbling to the finish line – is now on record siding with irresponsible vandals and violent criminals against property owners trying to produce jobs and tax revenue for the states along the route. It’s the one true duty of government – to protect private property rights – and the Obama administration can’t get it right.

Last week, an Obama-appointed federal judge who actually reviewed the situation and the law ordered protestors to back off and let construction continue on the Dakota Access Pipeline project, which will carry sweet crude oil from the Bakken Oil Fields to Illinois and, for some of it, beyond to Gulf Coast refineries.

But later that day, the Obama administration – which clearly doesn’t seem to get why paying ransom is dumb – caved to those who had destroyed and vandalized equipment, attacked and thrown rocks at officials and threatened and threw sticks at dogs. It ordered three federal agencies to halt work on most of the pipeline until further study.

It’s not easy to get a pipeline approved. In this case, it took approval from environmental bureaucracies in four states. It took negotiating with local and federal officials, working painstakingly with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior to identify the safest, most environmentally friendly route available.

The pipeline company says it tried seven times to meet with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is fronting the protest, but was rebuffed each time.

In other words, the tribe had nothing to say until it was time to get on TV and create an Astroturf protest movement.

Scott Hennen, a leading radio talk show host in North Dakota, said airlines will make the most profit off the protests because the real stakeholders here weren’t the Native Americans and their secret sacred grounds but Soros-funded anti-energy, anti-environment, anti-jobs activists journeying from the coasts to do their virtue signaling and get arrested or at least charged if possible.

Meanwhile, the 12,000 people working on the job, the company that went through a long, laborious and terrifically expensive process in good faith that government would at least back its own rulings and the communities counting on the tax revenue the project would deliver are left to wonder.

Remember, this entire process was set up to require projects of this sort to meet strict environmental standards. It was taken out of the hands of politicians and put into the hands of regulators, engineers and scientists precisely so it could give us accurate – as opposed to politically motivated – results.

Now, a project jumps through the hoops and is found worthy and safe at every level by regulators in the affected area. But because of political considerations – and there is no other plausible explanation – it is now looking at a Keystone-like period of limbo.

Are we a banana republic, or do we stand by our processes? Can we count on the rule of law? Or does making points with extremists count for more? We’re about to find out, and we may well not like the answer.
​

​

 

[trysail]

If you were interested in facts (which you're not),
if you were interested in the rule of law (which you're either not or you don't understand),
here are some actual facts (instead of regurgitated fantasy) .

1.CLAIM: The pipeline encroaches on indigenous lands.

TRUTH: The Dakota Access Pipeline traverses a path on private property and does not cross into the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. 100% of landowners in North Dakota voluntarily signed easements to allow for construction of the pipeline on their property.

Nearly the entire route of the 1,172 mile pipeline has been sited and approved by relevant state and federal agencies and more than 22% of the pipeline has already been completed. To the extent possible, the Dakota Access Pipeline was routed to parallel existing infrastructure, such as the Northern Border Pipeline, to avoid environmentally sensitive areas and areas of potential cultural significance.



2. CLAIM: The pipeline exposes the Tribe’s water supply to contamination.

TRUTH: Pipelines are – by far – the safest way to transport energy liquids and gases. Already, 8 pipelines cross the Missouri River carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels of energy products every day. That includes the Northern Border natural gas pipeline – built in 1982 – that parallels the planned crossing for Dakota Access for 40 miles as well as high voltage transmission power lines. Once completed, the Dakota Access Pipeline will be among the safest, most technologically advanced pipelines in the world.

In addition, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s water intake is scheduled to be moved by the end by of the year. The Missouri River intake serving the Tribe is being switched to Mobridge, South Dakota, nearly 50 miles south of the current water intake and about 70 miles south of the planned Dakota Access river crossing.



3. CLAIM: The tribal community was not part of the discussion.

TRUTH: 389 meetings took place between the U.S. Army Corps and 55 tribes about the Dakota Access project. In addition the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met individually with the U.S. Army Corps nearly a dozen times to discuss archaeological and other surveys conducted to finalize the Dakota Access route.

Based on input from a number of sources, the pipeline route was adjusted in September 2014, to shorten the pipeline by 11 miles, avoid buildings and other structures, and cross fewer waterways and roads.



4. CLAIM: The pipeline is disrupting areas of cultural significance.

TRUTH: Safeguarding and ensuring the longevity of culturally significant artifacts and sites is of interest to all Americans. That’s why the Dakota Access Pipeline traverses a path on private property. And the Dakota Access Pipeline was routed to parallel existing infrastructure, such as the Northern Border Pipeline and high voltage transmission power lines. Therefore the Dakota Access route has already been under construction twice before. Designing the route to parallel existing infrastructure mitigates any additional impacts to the environment and avoids areas of potential cultural significance.

Additionally, on site there are professional archeologists who are able to identify and properly tend to artifacts and evidence of culturally significant sites if any not identified by the surveys are discovered.



5. CLAIM: On site protests have been peaceful.

TRUTH: Unfortunately, the emotionally charged atmosphere has led to several outbreaks of violence which has endangered the safety of the workers and the protesters themselves. Protesters have rushed police lines, threatened and assaulted private security officers, and thrown rocks and bottles at workers. And let’s remember, the work that is being done is in full accordance with all state and federal regulations and on private property – not on reservation land.

​

​

 

[JohnnySavage]

The Dakota Access Pipeline And Rule Of Law

by Brian McNicoll

I was wasting time on Facebook the other night when the absurdity of what’s going on in North Dakota finally fully occurred to me.

I’m arguing with this guy, saying it’s ridiculous protesters are stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline. The oil is needed. The project is safe. The claims that it disrupts historically significant tribal lands has been thoroughly debunked.

“You don’t understand,” the guy finally says. “We don’t tell the white man where our sacred places are. We keep it a secret.”

Say what?

So it’s just where you say it is, and you don’t say it’s there until someone threatens to turn a buck nearby? Over the seven years and millions of dollars the company spent consulting with tribes and other stakeholders, lining up the very latest in pipeline-building technology, working with communities from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and finally to its end, 1,200 miles away in Illinois to iron out the best route, you just don’t feel comfortable mentioning the sacred burial grounds and potential water sources you see as endangered?

At some point, if we’re still more than a banana republic, this has to end.

This pipeline meets a huge need. The fields of Western North Dakota, which produced 300,000 barrels per day in 2001, turn out 1 million per day now. The added production has overwhelmed the railroad industry. Costs have risen from $50 to $1,400 per car, and South Dakota’s grain farmers are having trouble getting their products to market.

It’s nowhere near any sacred tribal lands, and the useful idiots at the front of the Native American groups leading the protest know this. It’s not on their property – or really even all that close to it. It doesn’t threaten their water supply – the pipeline has to cross the Missouri River somewhere, and it makes that crossing safely by passing more than 90 feet underneath. Unless the technology fails in this case and gravity is defeated for 90 full feet, there is no threat here to the river, and everyone knows it.

It’s a 100 percent sham, and the Obama administration – with the sad predictability of a tattered and torn administration stumbling to the finish line – is now on record siding with irresponsible vandals and violent criminals against property owners trying to produce jobs and tax revenue for the states along the route. It’s the one true duty of government – to protect private property rights – and the Obama administration can’t get it right.

Last week, an Obama-appointed federal judge who actually reviewed the situation and the law ordered protestors to back off and let construction continue on the Dakota Access Pipeline project, which will carry sweet crude oil from the Bakken Oil Fields to Illinois and, for some of it, beyond to Gulf Coast refineries.

But later that day, the Obama administration – which clearly doesn’t seem to get why paying ransom is dumb – caved to those who had destroyed and vandalized equipment, attacked and thrown rocks at officials and threatened and threw sticks at dogs. It ordered three federal agencies to halt work on most of the pipeline until further study.

It’s not easy to get a pipeline approved. In this case, it took approval from environmental bureaucracies in four states. It took negotiating with local and federal officials, working painstakingly with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior to identify the safest, most environmentally friendly route available.

The pipeline company says it tried seven times to meet with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which is fronting the protest, but was rebuffed each time.

In other words, the tribe had nothing to say until it was time to get on TV and create an Astroturf protest movement.

Scott Hennen, a leading radio talk show host in North Dakota, said airlines will make the most profit off the protests because the real stakeholders here weren’t the Native Americans and their secret sacred grounds but Soros-funded anti-energy, anti-environment, anti-jobs activists journeying from the coasts to do their virtue signaling and get arrested or at least charged if possible.

Meanwhile, the 12,000 people working on the job, the company that went through a long, laborious and terrifically expensive process in good faith that government would at least back its own rulings and the communities counting on the tax revenue the project would deliver are left to wonder.

Remember, this entire process was set up to require projects of this sort to meet strict environmental standards. It was taken out of the hands of politicians and put into the hands of regulators, engineers and scientists precisely so it could give us accurate – as opposed to politically motivated – results.

Now, a project jumps through the hoops and is found worthy and safe at every level by regulators in the affected area. But because of political considerations – and there is no other plausible explanation – it is now looking at a Keystone-like period of limbo.

Are we a banana republic, or do we stand by our processes? Can we count on the rule of law? Or does making points with extremists count for more? We’re about to find out, and we may well not like the answer.
​

​

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