Calgary-based Enbridge Energy’s Line 67, also known as the Alberta Clipper, serves a similar purpose as the Keystone XL pipeline, however, with the expansion of the Alberta Clipper, would actually carry a bit more oil than the Keystone pipeline.
The Presidential approval permit will allow the Alberta Clipper pipeline to almost double its capacity at the crossing near Neche, North Dakota to about 890,000 barrels per day. Needless to say, but Enbridge welcomed the permit after a delay of about five years in the permitting process.
“Line 67 currently operates under an existing Presidential Permit that was issued by the State Department in 2009 and the 2017 permit authorizes Enbridge to fully utilize its capacity across the border,” the company said in a statement.
According to the Presidential Permit, “In making the determination that issuance of this permit would serve the national interest, the Acting Assistant Secretary considered a broad range of factors, including but not limited to foreign policy; energy security; environmental, cultural, and economic impacts; and compliance with applicable law and policy.
Enbridge’s little ‘workaround plan to get approval
Enbridge filed for the Alberta Clipper pipeline permit back in 2012, but just like the Keystone XL pipeline, Enbridge ran into delays in getting the permit from the administration of then President Barack Obama. However, in 2014, well before Donald Trump assumed the Presidency, Enbridge tried something else.
The company hatched a sneaky plan to get around the pipeline permitting process. Folks may remember the Line 3 Project. It is the largest in the company’s history and will be 1,659 kilometers (1,031 miles) long. It will carry tar sands oil, the dirtiest fuel in the world, from the Athabasca River Basin in Alberta, through northern Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin.
Enbridge connected the Alberta Clipper to its existing Line 3 pipeline on each side of the Canada-U.S. border, and put oil from Clipper on Line 3 to cross the international boundary, according to Oil&Gas Investor.
If that is the case, we have already been getting the bulk of the oil that is supposed to be carried by Line 67. The thing is, we will be getting double the oil-sands petroleum we have been getting, and it is very labor-intensive to refine, As it is, Enbridge’s Mainline pipeline network carries the bulk of Canada’s 3 million barrels per day of crude exports to the U.S. and operates at close to capacity.