North Dakota Approves Enbridge's Sandpiper Pipeline, June 25, 2014

I track "pipelines of interest" here.

This is the blurb on the Enbridge Sandpiper pipeline prior to being updated today:

Enbridge

Sandpiper
 Enbridge Light Oil Market Access Program
Western Canada to Montreal, Quebec

Comment: this is a key line taking Bakken oil to Superior, MN, where it would hook up with Line 5, to get crude oil back into Canada. (Map here; because the link is to a regional media source, the link will probably break)

Unofficial "Go-By" Name:

Announced:
Expected completion: 2016

Originator: Enbridge

Pipeline: crude oil

Specs: $2.6 billion

Origin: Beaver Lodge Terminal, Tioga, North Dakota

Terminus: Superior, WI, Terminal via Clearbrook, MN

Length: 600 miles

Capacity: 225,000 bopd (approx 20% of Bakken output)

Comments:

Concerns: northern Minnesota activists in Clearbridge area

Status:  initial application was not approved by FERC in March, 2013; Enbridge says project remains on schedule.  Update, October 29, 2013: The Bismarck Tribune reports that the Minnesota PUC will take a year to listen to local farmers who oppose the pipeline. 

Update: The Dickinson Press is reporting today (June 25, 2014)  that North Dakota has approved the Enbridge Sandpiper:

During a regular meeting today, North Dakota’s Public Service Commission approved construction of the $2.6 billion Sandpiper pipeline.

The pipeline will extend through 10 northern North Dakota counties, starting at the Beaver Lodge oil and gas field near Tioga. It is planned to reach a terminal in Clearbrook, MN, and end at a terminal in Superior, WI.

New pipes, ranging from 24 inches to 30 inches in diameter, will allow oil to be shipped to Canada, and the southern and eastern United States. Canadian energy delivery company Enbridge will supervise pipeline construction.

Do NOT confuse this pipeline with the Enbridge Clipper pipeline which runs from western Canada to Illinois. That pipeline is also tracked at the linked post at the very top.

It appears that Minnesota PUC is almost ready to approve their portion; they appear to penciling in the final route through Minnesota. A big "thank you" to Don for finding this article. NorthlandNewsCenter is reporting:

But construction of the proposed Sandpiper pipeline, which would bring oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota to Superior, would be more than just a job creator, say officials.

Lorraine Little, of Enbridge Energy, says construction of the $2.6 billion project alone would bring about 1,500 good paying construction jobs.

"And then it also means economic spin–off for the communities that will see that construction, and that's people staying in hotels, and eating at restaurants, and buying gas, and those kinds of things," said Little Friday, "so it's bigger than just the workers that will be on the pipeline. There's a lot of spin–off in the community."

The Sandpiper line has not been approved, and the public comment period had been extended from April to the end of May at the request of environmental organizations like Honor the Earth, and the Friends of the Headwaters group.

Both organizations are encouraging people to learn more about proposed alternate routes for the Sandpiper that would divert the course closer to the Twin Cities.

The PUC will decide if it will consider alternative routes in mid–July.