May 26, 2018

Trans Mountain Pipeline Project update, data points here --

• court orders Vancouver (city) to pay Kinder Morgan (pipeline company) for legal costs after BC's top court hands company twin victories
• the Supreme Court of British Columbia threw out two challenges against the B.C. government’s environmental approvals for the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline project
• adds to Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.’s near-perfect record of winning legal cases even as the project faces stiff opposition on the ground
• the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed applications by the City of Vancouver and the Squamish Nation to overturn the environmental certificates the former Liberal B.C. government had granted to the Trans Mountain project
• in a decisive victory for the company, Justice Christopher Grauer (see this link) ruled that Vancouver would need to pay Kinder Morgan unspecified legal costs. Prior to the two cases, Kinder Morgan had won 14 court challenges in a row for its Trans Mountain pipeline project

CNBC on-location update regarding the Bakken. CNBC here in Williston, link here:

• plenty of jobs in the Bakken
• tough to get enough workers
• the slowdown after the first Bakken boom was welcomed by many Willistonites
• maybe too many apartment units
• perhaps lack enough single houses
• 700 births/year -- two births a day
• man-camps shut down
• quality of life much better
• standard of living, much higher
• "on our way to maybe 60,000 wells"; currently 14,000 wells
• now, measured growth
• $70 million rec center
• new airport being built
• new hospital
• renovation downtown
• college free for local residents