Did I Read This Correctly? It Took The State Department Four Years To Review A 3-Mile Section Of An Existing Pipeline? -- February 13, 2017

Updates

October 17, 2017:  after five years of study, the US State Department finally reached a decision -- a permit was approved for a 3-mile section of pipeline.

The State Department has granted Enbridge Energy a presidential permit for the final piece of its project to boost the capacity of its Alberta Clipper oil pipeline.

Calgary, Alberta-based Enbridge has been operating the pipeline, formally called Line 67, since 2010. The company upgraded its pumping stations in 2014 and 2015 to nearly double its capacity to 800,000 barrels per day.

But Enbridge needed the permit for the 3-mile segment that crosses the U.S.-Canadian border near Neche, North Dakota. After nearly five years of review, the State Department said Monday that issuing the permit serves the national interest.

Enbridge has been running Line 67 at full capacity by using a short detour into a parallel pipeline for crossing the border.

Line 67 carries Alberta crude across Minnesota to Superior, WI.

Original Post

This is what I posted earlier:

Alberta Clipper, story here, with byline from Bismarck, ND, data points:

• four-year review
• Enbridge Energy Partners
• process began in 2012
• goal: to transport 800,000 bopd on an existing 3-mile section of pipeline on the company's Alberta Clipper pipeline 
• carries tar sand oil from Canada across northeastern ND and northern Minnesota to Superior, WI 

This is the rest of the story (linked above):

• Alberta Clipper, AKA "Line 67" was completed in 2009
• $1 billion project
• the company wants permission to expand its current capacity on the line where it crosses the international border from 450,000 bopd to 800,000 bopd  
• while waiting for approval, the company has been rerouting the additional bbls through a 1960s-era pipeline along the same route for three (3) miles
• that pipeline already has a presidential permit
• if the permit is approved by the US government, the Alberta Clipper would transport the additional oil without being re-routed, and the old pipeline would be rebuilt

Pipeline news is tracked here; at that link one can link to pipelines that interest me. The latter link was robust during the early Bakken boom (Bakken 1.0) but since then I have not kept it updated.

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Filloon: Harstreet Oil -- A Permian Story

 Story at SeekingAlpha.

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The Literature Page

Ruskin's Venice, Robert Hewison, c. 1978, 2000

A coffee-table book, less than 70 pages thick -- a very, very nice biography and art appreciation book: John Ruskin's life and his passion for Venice.

The author was the Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University for 1999 - 2000. John Ruskin was first elected to that same post in 1869. He resigned the appointment ten years later, in 1879, but then resumed the Slade Professorship in 1883. He died in early 1900.

Born in 1819.

Victorian England: June 20, 1837 - 22 January 1901.

Quickies:

• at a young age, fell in love with Venice
• researched, drew, painted Venice
• his "hero" J. M. W. Turner, the water colorist
• unrequited loved for Adele Domecq, who spurned his advances
• strange relationship with women
• friendship with the pre-Raphaelites
• first wife, Effie; marriage of six years never consummated; wife ran off with Ruskin's friend (Millais)
• holiday with pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, Glenfinlas, Scotland; it was there that Effie fell in love with Millais 
• in his 40's falls in love with a teenager; geographically-separated romance; ends in sadness; the teenage, mentally unstable, died "insane," 1875
• Ruskin himself, highly religious in early life, turned away from religion; his teenage girlfriend thought he might be a pagan; he did turn to spiritualism to try to bring his teenage girlfriend back to life
• Ruskin suffered frequent and long episodes of insanity in later age
• as he aged, his personal disappointments multiplied
• continued to love Venice to the end of his life

The wiki bio is very, very good, but interestingly does not mention his insanity (word search for madness, insanity, mental was unsuccessful).

Most famous books: Modern Painters; and, The Stones Of Venice.

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Too Many Books, Too Little Time