22-01-21, 17:49
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re: Oscars Apologises to Native American Who Refused Oscar on Behalf of Marlon Brando
With Keystone XL Back on The Shelf, Oilpatch Pressure Mounts on Trudeau and Trans Mountain
All eyes shift to West Coast project with its own history of challenges now that Keystone XL permit is gone
•22 Jan 2021 CBC News
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with workers at the Trans Mountain Terminal in Edmonton in 2019. While his government bought the pipeline and the expansion is under construction, some in the oilpatch still worry whether it will be completed. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
Many officials are hoping for improved relations between Canada and the United States under President Joe Biden, but his executive order cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline dealt some of those hopes an early blow — especially in Alberta.
The town of Oyen in southeastern Alberta has been enjoying a rare thing in the province these past few months: an economic boom.
The community has been bustling with pipeline workers who arrived by the hundreds last summer to help build the Canadian leg of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Doug Dingman, who owns a grocery and liquor store in the community, said his business has been up 20 per cent with the crews in town and he thought they'd be around until next fall.
Those workers could soon start hitting the highway out of town as TC Energy announced a suspension in the project on Wednesday, after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled the permit for the proposed pipeline and rejoined the Paris climate accord as expected.
"I'm still pretty upset that he [Biden] is going to shut it down," said Dingman, who worries about the ramifications for the oilpatch, the province and the economy.
But the situation also has him wondering about other important projects for the province's oil and gas sector, including the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The TMX project is owned by the federal government and is under construction, but some Albertans continue to worry it will never be completed.
"I really don't think that'll happen, either," he said. "I think that B.C. is going to block it all."
All Eyes on TMX
No doubt, the pressure from the oilpatch on the prime minister to complete Trans Mountain will intensify after this week.
Like many, Mark Salkeld was not surprised by the Biden decision, but is still left feeling "disappointment and frustration," said the executive with Katch Kan, an Edmonton-based oilfield service company.
"We can't be strangled by the U.S. We've got lots [of oil] moving there, no doubt about it, but there's lots more yet to move," he said, suggesting there will be renewed oilpatch interest in any export proposal whether it's a pipeline, rail project, or some other alternative.
The Trans Mountain expansion has faced a slew of its own setbacks, yet construction continues on the pipelines that will transport oil from Edmonton to the Vancouver area for export. Besides past legal and regulatory challenges, the construction was recently paused after a series of safety problems.
"I don't think just because there's no other country to deal with on that project that there aren't going to be significant challenges," said Connie Van der Byl, director of Mount Royal University's institute for environmental sustainability in Calgary.
In fact, the demise of Keystone XL could invigorate opponents of Trans Mountain to try to stop that pipeline project too, she said.
"Overall, this is another signal to Alberta and those connected with oil and gas that it's tough times. You have to have empathy for those in the industry," said Van Der Byl, who worked for TC Energy as a business analyst in its natural gas division more than a decade ago.
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