"Take It Or Leave It, Enbridge" -- Back In PUC's Court -- April 23, 2018: Administrative Judge Threads The Needle -- Rules For The Pipeline; Rules Against Enbridge

Map: screenshot taken July 20, 2018, after the PUC ruled -- from this article --

 Original Post

https://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/23/us/ap-us-enbridge-energy-line-3-the-latest.html

MINNEAPOLIS — The Latest on Enbridge Energy's proposed Line 3 replacement (all times local): 5:15 p.m.

An administrative law judge says Minnesota regulators should approve Enbridge Energy's proposal for replacing its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline only if it follows the existing route rather than the company's preferred route.  

Administrative Law Judge Ann O'Reilly recommended Monday that the Public Utilities Commission choose the existing route, which avoids sensitive areas in the Mississippi River headwaters region where American Indians harvest wild rice and hold treaty rights. The proposal has drawn opposition because the line would carry Canadian tar sands crude.  

The commission is expected to make its final decision in June. 

The graphic at this post appears to show the existing route and Enbridge's preferred route, the right angle dogleg, to avoid two Indian reservations. But the judge said Enbridge needed to take the existing route as seen in the graphic below:

Buzz on the street: Enbridge knew exactly what it was doing when it offered a "preferred but different route." Scott Adams would have a lot of fun with this one.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. See disclaimer.

Motley Fool: Enbridge vs Magellan Midstream, seven days ago. Slight edge to Magellan Midstream but both are on sale. 

The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 2, T+54 -- April 23, 2018

Wow, wow, wow -- Paul Rand will support Mike Pompeo. Nomination confirmation pretty much a sure thing now, according to mainstream media. Wow.

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Falling Off A CLiff

Venezuela Crude Oil Production

Bloomberg Data From Twitter

XTO WIth Six New Permits; One Producing Well (DUC) Completed -- April 23, 2018

Active rigs:

$68.64↑	4/23/2018	04/23/2017	04/23/2016	04/23/2015	04/23/2014
Active Rigs	60	49	29	86	187

Eight new permits:

• Operators: XTO (6): CLR (2)
• Fields: Alkali Creek (Williams); Hamlet (Divide)
• Comments: XTO has permits for a 6-well Myrna pad in 2-154-95;

One producing well completed:

• 32346, 264, BR, CCU Mainstreeter 8-2-30 MBH, neither FracFocus nor NDIC has posted any frack data, t3/18; cum --

Pending -- Enbridge Line 3 -- April 23, 2018

Updates

Later, 5:35 p.m. Minnesota time:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/23/us/ap-us-enbridge-energy-line-3-the-latest.html

MINNEAPOLIS — The Latest on Enbridge Energy's proposed Line 3 replacement (all times local): 5:15 p.m.

An administrative law judge says Minnesota regulators should approve Enbridge Energy's proposal for replacing its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline only if it follows the existing route rather than the company's preferred route.  

Administrative Law Judge Ann O'Reilly recommended Monday that the Public Utilities Commission choose the existing route, which avoids sensitive areas in the Mississippi River headwaters region where American Indians harvest wild rice and hold treaty rights. The proposal has drawn opposition because the line would carry Canadian tar sands crude.  

The commission is expected to make its final decision in June. 

The graphic at this post appears to show the existing route and Enbridge's preferred route. 

Later, 5:07 p.m. Minnesota time: the ruling has still not been released as far as I can tell (google: today's news on enbridge line 3).

Later, 3:39 p.m. Minnesota time: the ruling has still not been released as far as I can tell (google: today's news on enbridge line 3).

Original Post 

Link here.

With the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project still in limbo, another major pipeline project is awaiting a do-or-die decision by regulators in Minnesota, with a key report on the future of Enbridge's Line 3 expected today.

The federal cabinet gave the green light to both Trans Mountain and Line 3 — the largest project in the history of Enbridge — on the same day in November 2016. And while work on Line 3 has already started on the Canadian side of the border, the regulatory agency tasked with approving construction through Minnesota has so far held off granting necessary permissions amid intense local opposition.

If Enbridge fails to secure a state permit and route approval, Line 3 could join the list of other major natural resources projects approved by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that have failed to launch.

Enbridge hopes to replace the entire span of the aging pipeline, which carries oil from a terminal near Hardisty, Alberta, through northern Minnesota to Superior, WI, where it travels on to U.S. refineries for upgrading.

My hunch: the court will find that more "information" is needed from one party or the other, or that some agency failed to consider all aspects. I'm sure there is at least one indigenous group in Florida that was not consulted.

With so much "intense opposition," there's no way any judge could approve this request. Especially since it does not benefit Minnesota, as far as I can tell. 

The Market, Energy, And Political Page, T+54 -- April 23, 2018

I don't really see this as "Trump's revenge." This started well before Trump -- the US shale revolution. Trump simply inherited the deluge -- and actually the deluge began under Obama's watch. If folks go back to Bush II, one will find that Bush II was concerned with shortage of crude oil, and like most modern US presidents was begging Saudi Arabia to "go easy" on the US with regard to oil.

Obama had simply given up,



By the way, he was wrong on Trump, too. Both he and Hillary were working to elevate Trump among the fourteen original Republican candidates, figuring Trump would be the easiest to beat -- Hillary was most afraid of the "Bush" name -- but I digress.

Bush II, like most modern US presidents, had implored the Saudis to "go easy" on the US with regard to oil; Obama had simply given up even as Aubrey McClendon and Harold Hamm were drilling. Obama completely missed the revolution -- he certainly was not the sharpest knife in the drawer -- and Trump now presides over another problem -- but I don't see it as "revenge."

The article is a very, very good article for newbies, running through the various grades and sources of oil.

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