Judge dismisses suit over Enbridge oil pipeline expansions

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A federal judge in Minnesota has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the permits for two Enbridge oil pipelines in the Upper Midwest.

The environmental groups who brought the lawsuit claimed the government didn't properly analyze the effects of the two pipelines being built by Enbridge Energy. But U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank disagreed, and said that the government gave the projects a "hard look" before granting permits.

The Alberta Clipper pipeline brings crude oil to the U.S. from Canada's oil sands. It runs from Hardisty, Alta., to Superior, Wis., through Minnesota and northeastern North Dakota.

The Southern Lights pipeline runs from Manhattan, Ill., to Clearbrook, Minn., and hooks up with another line carrying a light petroleum liquid (diluent) to Canada’s oil sands.

Linefill under way for new Enbridge Clipper line to Superior, Wis.

DULUTH, Minn. – The last weld on Enbridge’s new 1,000-mile Alberta Clipper crude oil pipeline was completed on March 3.
The $1.2 billion Enbridge Energy pipeline has been laid, buried, welded, hydro-tested and inspected. It will start carrying Canadian crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to Superior in April - months earlier than the company expected when work started.
"We're ready to go. We're hoping to have the line in service by about April 1,'' Enbridge spokeswoman Lorraine Grymala said.
But the big celebration will come, Grymala said, when oil flows through the line.
Most of the 3,000 construction workers, equipment operators and welders who laid the pipeline already have left for home or for their next project.
Six crews from three pipeline construction companies, about 500 workers in each crew, worked on the 326 miles of pipe laid across northern Minnesota roughly parallel to U.S. Highway 2.

Enbridge says new oil pipelines may run below capacity until 2017

NEW YORK - Enbridge Energy Partners LP, the Houston-based pipeline partnership controlled by Canada’s largest pipeline company, said it may take seven years to fill new crude oil pipelines from Canada to the U.S. because of excess capacity.
“It may be 2017 before we see all the pipes that are being planned to be full,” said Stephen Letwin, managing director of Enbridge Energy Co., the general partner of Enbridge Energy Partners, during an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “The fact that these pipes are not filling until 2017 is not critical because we know we are going to get our value back.”
Although the new Enbridge Alberta Clipper will operate as a common carrier line, Enbridge has throughput guarantees from several large producers in Canada’s oil sands. Because of the throughput agreements, Enbridge will collect about $180 million a year from its shippers regardless of the volume shipped. If the pipeline runs at reduced rates, shippers will pay a higher price per barrel - a fact that is leading the oilsands shippers who have signed throughput agreements to seek relief from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
It will take about 6.4 million barrels of linefill to fill the Clipper and that will “likely be later in the year or even next year,” Mark Maki, the company’s chief financial officer, said.

Suncor says Alberta Clipper no longer prudent, wants lower tariff

CALGARY, Alta. - A tariff dispute between Enbridge Inc. and bitumen producer Suncor Energy over Enbridge's Alberta Clipper line has raised doubts about the necessity of the line.
During an investor symposium on Jan. 21, Enbridge disclosed that Suncor had applied with U.S. energy regulators to defer tariffs on the U.S. portion of the 1,600-kilometer line due to reduced need.
Suncor, which recently merged with Petro-Canada, said the new pipeline likely will run under capacity.
"We support additional capacity, but the timing of Clipper is no longer a prudent fit with supply," Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said. "We are concerned about the potential impact of unnecessary pipeline-related costs in view of unused capacity on the competitiveness of Canadian heavy oilsands crude into the U.S. "
Enbridge chief financial officer Richard Bird said the Clipper will start operation several months ahead of schedule, on April 1, further pressuring tariff revenues at home.
"Suncor is a significant customer, so we understand their concern with the fact that our tolls on our main-line system are going to increase as a result of circumstances that have changed since the Alberta Clipper project was approved," Bird told investors at a symposium in Whistler, B.C. "We will work with them and with (the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) to do everything that we can to make it right."

Environmental groups still hope to halt Enbridge Alberta Clipper line

WASHINGTON – In an announcement on Aug. 20 that surprised no one, the Obama administration approved construction of the proposed Enbridge Alberta Clipper Pipeline to carry oil-sands fuel from Canada into Superior, Wis., saying its action was designed to send "a positive economic signal in a difficult economic period".
Many environmentalists had expressed hopes that Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, would reject a permit to build the Alberta Clipper, a 1,000-mile pipeline designed to carry up to 800,000 b/d of bitumen from Canada's oil sands.
The State Department said greenhouse-gas emissions are best addressed through each country's domestic policies and a strong international agreement.
After undertaking what it said was considerable evaluation, the State Department said it would permit Enbridge Energy to build the pipeline to advance a number of U.S. strategic interests.
These interests include increasing the diversity of oil supplies for the U.S., amid political tension in many major oil-producing regions; shortening the transportation path for crude oil supplies; and increasing crude oil supplies from a major non-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer.
"Canada is a stable and reliable ally and trading partner of the United States, with which we have free trade agreements, which augment the security of this energy supply," the State Department said ina prepared news release. "Approval of the permit sends a positive economic signal, in a difficult economic period, about the future reliability and availability of a portion of the United States' energy imports.''
The State Department also said the project would provide construction jobs for U.S. workers.
Environmentalists on both sides of the border seized on the approval as a contradiction of Washington's promise to cut global warming pollution and the U.S. addiction to oil.
"Importing dirty tar-sands oil is not in our national interest," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, an environmental group. "At a time when concern is growing about the national security threat posted by global warming, it doesn't make sense to open our gates to one of the dirtiest fuels on earth."
Pope said that approving such a big, long-term project locked the U.S. into a dirty energy infrastructure for years to come. "This is exactly the kind of project the State Department should be protecting us from," he said.
An international coalition of environmental and Native American groups said they would challenge the permit in court to ensure all impacts of the pipeline were considered.
"The tar-sands pipeline connects U.S. refiners and consumers with the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive crude oil on earth," said Kevin Reuther, legal director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

U.S. State Department approves Enbridge Alberta Clipper construction

WASHINGTON – In an announcement on Aug. 20 that surprised no one, the Obama administration approved construction of the proposed Enbridge Alberta Clipper Pipeline to carry oil-sands fuel from Canada into Superior, Wis., saying its action was designed to send "a positive economic signal in a difficult economic period".
Many environmentalists had expressed hopes that Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, would reject a permit to build the Alberta Clipper, a 1,000-mile pipeline designed to carry up to 800,000 b/d of fuel from Canada's oil sands.
The State Department said greenhouse-gas emissions are best addressed through each country's domestic policies and a strong international agreement.
After undertaking what it said was considerable evaluation, the State Department said it would permit Enbridge Energy to build the pipeline to advance a number of U.S. strategic interests.
These interests include increasing the diversity of oil supplies for the U.S., amid political tension in many major oil-producing regions; shortening the transportation path for crude oil supplies; and increasing crude oil supplies from a major non-Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries producer.