Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Interesting Routing Proposal for the Keystone XL

CRC alerted me to this:
As far as the Keystone XL pipeline I like what North Dakota PUC Commissioner Keven Cramer proposes for routing. He would start it in Montana and turn it southeast enough to enter North Dakota at the Williams County line and carry it into McKenzie County staying away from crossing Lake Sakakwea. Then running the pipeline in a diagonal line along an existing gas pipeline to the South Dakota border in southeast North Dakota.

In South Dakota it would connect up with the existing Keystone pipeline right away to Oklahoma. This gives better access to the pipeline for Bakken and other North Dakota crude.

Put the pipeline in. As long as it doesn't cross Canadian-US border, it wouldn't require State Department approval. The six states involved should form a coalition, complete the routing proposal (working with TransCanada), and lay the pipeline.
Once the construction is complete: a) new administration to give this a fair hearing, i.e., immediate approval; or, b) current administration to say "yes" or "no." If "no" fill the pipeline with Bakken oil.

Here's a video of the proposed Keystone XL route (I am not taking a political position with regard to individual running for Congress.  I'm just interested in the pipeline route proposal.

Proposed Keystone XL Route

2 comments:

  1. Sans political overtones, the idea sounds more viable. I always wondered why they they weren't doing that route to begin with when I sent a resume to Transacanada a year ago. It would be more fun to live in the Black Hills and typically labor is dirt cheap in the parts of SD and NE where the original route was planned. I think with today and tomorrows oil prices a few more miles of pipe in a little higher wage areas should not be much of a big deal.

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  2. Yes, to find out that there was existing pipeline easements in South Dakota and an existing pipeline from there to the south, I find it incredible the Canadians did not take advantage of that.

    But it's now in the political arena and we will see if the fight continues even if the new routing simply follows existing pipeline easements.

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