TransCanada shows lack of commitment
It’s worrisome that plan may have been to use the threat of Energy East to get Keystone XL built, Mike Priaro writes.
TransCanada Corp.’ s commitment to Energy East is in question, particularly after its unsatisfactory explanation for the recently announced two- year delay in its completion from 2018 to 2020.
The reason given by TransCanada, the cancellation of the Cacouna marine terminal because of its potential impact on beluga whales, doesn’t hold water. That is because Energy East’s proposed expansion of the Saint John, N. B., Canaport crude export marine terminal is in equally sensitive right whale habitat in the Bay of Fundy.
TransCanada says it needs time to decide on another location to replace the Cacouna marine terminal or to decide one terminal is enough. Meanwhile, the safest and most environmentally acceptable marine terminal on Canada’s East Coast, the Strait of Canso Superport in Nova Scotia — the closest to markets in Europe and western India, eagerly awaits to serve Canada’s crude export needs.
The Saint John Canaport could still serve to export refined products from an Irving refinery expanded to 600,000 bbl/ d, and export high- value- added products from a new petrochemical industry in Saint John to the U. S. and to the rest of the world.
It is not widely known that Energy East was dreamed up in a fit of anger just days after U. S. President Barack Obama’s Nov. 10, 2011, phone call informing Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Keystone XL was on hold.
Frank McKenna — former premier of New Brunswick, former ambassador to the U. S., and deputy- chairman of TD Bank, and the individual given most credit for giving life to the Energy East proposal — has been quoted as stating: “The best way to get Keystone XL built is to make it irrelevant.”
It is worrisome that the plan all along may have been to use the threat of Energy East to get Keystone XL built because that is the best way to make Keystone XL look irrelevant.
There is very real economic competition from the U. S. for the jobs and profits that they believe Keystone XL will provide to Gulf Coast refiners. However, Keystone XL is the last pipeline Canadians need because 97 per cent of Canadian crude already goes to the U. S. market. The Americans have us over a barrel — literally and figuratively, as they will make huge profits refining cheap, low royalty raw bitumen into diesel for export to Latin and South Americas at our expense.
Effectively, with oilsands production forecasts significantly reduced as a result of oil prices that are likely to stay low for two to five years, Canadians must choose be tween completing Keystone XL and building Energy East.
We don’t need both, especially if proposed expanded or new pipelines are built to the West Coast.
Despite that, on July 31, TransCanada chief executive Russ Girling said, referring to Keystone XL, “TransCanada, and its shippers, remain 100 per cent committed to this project.”
Canadian energy security, the domestic jobs and economic benefits of upgrading, refining, and petro- chemicals, profits from domestic retailing, exports of Canadian crudes, refined products, and petro- chemicals, government revenues from a smorgasbord of personal, corporate, sales, and excise taxes, diversification to new international markets, and spreading the opportunity to benefit from the largest oil resource on Earth across every mainland province in this country all appear to have been mere afterthoughts to justify an in- your- face, middle- finger to Obama by our politicians.
And Girling seems more interested in preserving his $ 8.7- million- a- year job than in pursuing what is best for TransCanada, Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the rest of Canada, because he and others at TransCanada have so much personal “skin” invested in their Keystone XL pipeline proposal.
The lack of commitment, proactive vision, and nationbuilding displayed by the political and industrial leadership of this country is enough to make any TransCanada shareholder, Albertan, and Canadian cringe.