Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewmaster
I wonder if the timing of this announcement has anything to do with the way Obama has handled the Keystone XL pipeline debate over the past few months. He has pretty much stated that the deciding factor will be weather or not Keystone XL will directly lead to increased oil sands production and the associated increase in carbon emissions. If the oil sands is getting increased pipeline capacity with or without Keystone, as this West/East project suggests, then it seems more likely that Obama will approve it.
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I think also its a hedge against Keystone being delayed until the next republican president. This way you have many pipelines in the works and you build as you get approvals.
This also puts pressure on BC as they can see there is a market outside of going though them. It reduces BC's ability to blackmail Alberta.
More pipelines is a good thing. The quebec rail explosion really woke people up to the dangers of rail so I think some of the attitude has changed.