Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleK
Can't agree with this enough.
In my opinion, Energy East was the best pipeline proposal, followed by Northern Gateway, TMX then KXL.
The country needs to diversify the markets it has access to, invest in greening the O&G sector and looking to move away from exporting the raw material (whether that's more upgrading at home or materials like polypropylene).
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Energy East is an absolutely terrible pipeline because it tolls were so expensive. It went up to $17 to Saint John uncommitted. That might work in $90-110 barrel oil but not $50-70. There isn't even that much demand left in Eastern Canada as Ontario as well Montreal is almost entirely Canadian.
Northern Gateway had huge political opposition that crossed traditional lines kinda of like the current opposition to coal mining. Losing the weakly supporting pro-pipeline people would have been a disaster and there's no guarantee we would have won them back. It could have been a fire that engulfed pipelines and the oil industry.
What has worked are low-key expansions that avoid the spotlight. Look at Line 3 replacement which no longer has any serious court challenges or opposition by any level of government. Line 9B reversal had one brief disruption shortly after completion and nothing afterwards. Keystone is still getting it's 170,000 barrel expansion something that pretty much no one is talking about(and it should stay way).