"If Keystone Gets Nixed, Canadian Pipeline Operators Have a Plan B"

"It might be that the U.S. environmentalists’ long campaign against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is about to backfire. Canadian pipeline operators are poised to implement an all-Canadian Plan B network of pipelines in place of the ill-fated Keystone XL that was to run the length of the U.S. heartland to the Texas Gulf Coast.

With the hearty good wishes of an Alberta heavy-oil industry desperate to see a return on its multibillion-dollar investment, Calgary-based pipeline operators already have their Plan B underway. No fewer than four heavy-oil pipeline projects on Canadian soil are under construction or shovel-ready, pending almost certain approval by a pipeline-friendly Alberta and Ottawa.

In the next few days, Ottawa is expected to approve Enbridge Inc.’s controversial, $7.9-billion Northern Gateway pipeline that is to carry Alberta crude oil 1,177 km across the Rockies to the B.C. coast, even though polls show that about two-thirds of B.C. residents want Gateway rejected or postponed for further study. Enbridge’s Line 9 project in Southern Ontario has already been approved and should be operational by year-end."

David Olive reports for the Toronto Star January 13, 2014.