When I was first hired to work for Pipeline News in the spring of 2008, I filled a great big whiteboard with ideas for stories. The original Keystone pipeline was on that list. That September, TransCanada filed its application with the U.S. Department of State for the Keystone XL project.
In July 2011 I took photos of pipe trucks hauling joints of line pipe from the railhead near Shaunavon to the stockpile site six miles south of the town.
Pipeline Newshas planned, and cancelled, several editions which were to focus on the construction of this pipeline. It was all for naught by Nov. 6, 2015, when President Barrack Obama kyboshed the project. Now, finally on Jan. 24, the project was revived by newly-elected President Donald Trump. He has invited TransCanada to reapply for a Presidential Permit, and ordered the State Department to make a decision within 60 days.
When I asked him about the project in May 2016, he said he wanted a piece. That was clear this week.
He wants to renegotiate with TransCanada on the project, the president noted during the signing ceremony. That day he also signed a memorandum essentially saying that all pipe to be used in U.S. pipeline projects must be U.S. steel.
That could make things difficult for the EVRAZ steel and pipe mill in Regina. I see trains carrying EVRAZ pipe through Estevan, to the United States on a regular basis. The steel mill might continue, but who knows what will happen with its associated pipe mill? We’re going to have to start building a lot of natural gas lines to the B.C. coast for liquefied natural gas, I guess.
So we may gain a pipeline, but could lose a pipe mill.
Much of my tenure with Pipeline Newshas been literally covering pipeline news. For years it has been full of angst, as roadblock after roadblock was put in the way of pipeline development. Now, finally, we might actually see some major pipelines built.
In many ways I still see myself as the pipeliner who used to build these projects. I melted in 35 C heat, and froze in -35 C cold, standing on the right of way as an oiler. Due to the skill of the operator I was paired with, I worked on almost every crew on a big-inch pipeline. Thus, having some intimate, background knowledge about pipelines and their construction, it has been pretty hard to take all the bovine feces hyperbole that has surrounded these projects.
Fundamentally, it comes down to digging a trench, welding a pipe, putting the pipe in the trench, and covering it up. In some places, you bore under sensitive areas or watercourses. Then you install pumps or compressors and fill it with your liquid or gas of choice. Safe, reliable transportation is the result. This has never been rocket science.
A lot of Trump’s cachet is his desire to get rid of a lot of the crap when it comes to government. A lot of people are just sick of it. Western governments have wrapped themselves up in so much red tape, it’s next to impossible to get things done. A lot of this red tape is meant to placate an environmental lobby that can never be placated. Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline were just two of the most egregious examples.
So, again, I will plan to head out to Shaunavon, hopefully this fall, with the intention to do numerous stories on the construction and impact of the Keystone XL project. It’s about bloody time.
— Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
