Support building for Energy East initiative
September 18, 2018, 1:37 am
Kevin Weedmark
Support is building for the town and RM of Moosomin’s efforts to bring the discussion on Energy East back to the fore.
Energy East was a proposal for a $15.7 billion pipeline that would take Western Canadian Energy to eastern Canada.
There would have been terminals at Hardisty, Alta. and at Moosomin, and crude would have been transported to eastern refineries in Quebec and New Brunswick.
The Moosomin terminal would have included a 1,050,000 barrel tank farm and a feeder pipeline from Cromer, Manitoba.
TransCanada planned to switch one pipe in its mainline across Western Canada and Ontario from natural gas to oil, and build new pipeline across Quebec and New Brunswick.
The 4,500 km pipeline would have carried 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil across the country each day and created 14,000 jobs. TransCanada had enough 20-year commitments from shippers to make the project go, but last September TransCanada announced that it was suspending its application for Energy East and in October of last year it withdrew its application for Energy East.
Some shippers that had committed to Energy East have now signed commitments to ship through TransCanada’s Keystone XL line to the U.S. Gulf Coast. That project got enough shippers to make it a go in January.
The town and RM of Moosomin have got together to try to restart the discussion on Energy East.
The World-Spectator spoke to several provincial leaders last week and found support for the Town and RM’s initiative.
The town and the RM are looking for indications of support at supportenergyeast@sasktel.net.
“It’s a just such a no-brainer . . . we currently buy 800,000 barrels a day from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and other countries, where we could be buying that from our own provinces in Western Canada.”
“We’re watching . . . with interest. I’ve heard Sinclair Harrison’s comments about this and it’s all good when it comes to trying to recreate momentum around a project such as this and we’re certainly supportive of that.”
“Pipelines have become a symbol of the ability of this country to build major projects in an effective, private-sector-driven way. We have been trying to prove as Canadians we can indeed still build these projects.”
“When we travel across the country we find people are supportive. People in the Maritimes are very supportive. They really want Energy East. They need oil for the Irving refinery, and they would like to reduce the number of rail cars carrying oil.”
“Our hearts went out to the people of Lac Megantic because hat was a disaster, and 47 people lost their lives because of an oil train, as you are aware. And yet how many people have died because of a pipeline leak? None.”
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