Time for TransCanada to learn some manners in Keystone XL fight?

U.S. citizens stereotypically think of Canadians as our polite neighbors to the North – so polite that we could take lessons from them.

But that's not the case of TransCanada, if we can believe a caustic article posted to the CBS News Web site by Ellen Cantarow, an investigative journalist who first began reporting from Israel in 1979.You can find her article at www.tomdispatch.com.

For anyone interested in pending State Department approval of TransCanada’s plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta's tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast refining complex, the article is a must-read.

A few highlights:

Cantarow notes the treatment of Texas landowner David Daniel at the hands of TransCanada. He built his dream home on 20 acres of lush wilderness in Winnsboro, East Texas. Then a nightmare called tar sands appeared on his doorstep.

"Tar sands are sandy soils laden with a tar-like substance called bitumen," Cantarow explains.

"Getting oil out of them is a dirty, dangerous, and deadly process. Daniel knew none of this when a neighbor phoned in the fall of 2008 to say that he'd seen trespassers on the property. ‘I went back (from work) and I found survey stakes that cut my property in half,' he recalls. Several months later, an eminent domain letter arrived, telling him that a pipeline carrying oil from Canada's oil sands would cut through his pristine property. When he complained to TransCanada, the company in charge, its lawyer responded with a veiled threat: ‘Should I put the letter in the 'cooperative' or the 'uncooperative pile?'"

TransCanada's powerful U.S. backers include Koch Industries, perhaps best known for funding stealth attacks on the federal government, and big spending on climate-change-denial campaigns.

The U.S. imports more oil from Canada than anywhere else, with Mexico ranking second, and Saudi Arabia third. Tar sands are largely responsible for Canada's new petro-status. Nearly a million barrels of tar sands oil arrive in the U.S. every day. By 2025, Canada is expected to be producing 3.5 million barrels of tar sands oil daily. Most of that, says Ryan Salmon of the National Wildlife Federation, will be imported to the U.S.

"Tar sands" is a colloquialism for 54,000 square miles of bitumen that veins sand and clay beneath the boreal forests of Alberta, one of Canada's western provinces. Black as it is, bitumen isn't actually tar, though it looks and smells like tar, and has its consistency on a very cold day - hence, that term 'tar sands.' The corporations that produce the stuff prefer the more positive 'oil sands.'

“Russ Girling, president and CEO of TransCanada, typically touts tar sands as improving ‘U.S. energy security and reduc(ing) dependence on foreign oil from the Middle East and Venezuela," Cantarow notes.

PAA declares increased distribution on limited partner units

HOUSTON, Texas - Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE: PAA) on April 11 announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.97 per unit ($3.88 per unit on an annualized basis) on all of its outstanding limited partner units.

The distribution will be payable on May 13 to holders of record at the close of business on May 3.

This distribution represents an increase of approximately 3.7 percent over the quarterly distribution of $0.935 per unit ($3.74 per unit on an annualized basis) paid in May 2010 and an increase of approximately 1.3 percent from the quarterly distribution of $0.9575 per unit ($3.83 per unit on an annualized basis) paid in February 2011.

As of this distribution, PAA will have increased its quarterly distribution to limited partners in 26 out of the past 28 quarters and in each of the past seven quarters.

PAA also stated that it expects to deliver adjusted EBITDA that will exceed the high end of its public guidance for the first quarter of 2011. PAA's financial guidance furnished on Feb. 9 included an adjusted EBITDA range of $280 million to $310 million for the first quarter of 2011.

NGS Energy opens Leaf River natural gas storage facility in Mississippi

LAUREL, Miss. - NGS Energy has started operations at its Leaf River Energy Center, a natural gas storage facility northwest of Laurel in Jasper and Smith counties in Mississippi.

The Westport, Conn., company says it is accepting natural gas in its first cavern, which holds eight billion cubic feet. NGS says a second cavern will open next year. It holds permits for caverns in two salt domes with 32 billion cubic feet of capacity.

The 43-mile pipeline header system associated with the facility will run through Smith, Jasper and Clarke counties in Mississippi and connect to Southern Natural, Gulf South, Transco, Tennessee, Destin and the proposed Kinder Morgan Express pipelines.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the storage of natural gas in the underground salt caverns in 2008.

TransCanada, ExxonMobil cry foul, say AGIA bill appears to violate agreement

JUNEAU, Alaska - TransCanada, the firm entrusted by the State of Alaska with $500 million to build a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to the Lower 48, says a bill in the Legislature appears to violate an agreement between the company and the state.

Under Alaska House bill 142, TransCanada would have until July to provide the Parnell administration with proof that state payments under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act are making progress toward the goal of building a gas pipeline.

If TransCanada cannot show firm commitments from energy companies that they'll use a proposed line, the project could be deemed uneconomic, and the state could begin the process of abandoning AGIA.

In prepared testimony introduced during the bill's first hearing on April 4, TransCanada wrote that the bill changes key provisions in the contract and "raises uncertainty of the state’s support for AGIA at a critical time."

Company officials also stated that HB 142 undercuts efforts to advance what they call a successful project, and that there are already provisions in AGIA which allow the state to determine whether the project is economic.

"I can assure you that in the event that the state did change the rules, and it's determined that you changed the rules, that will affect any future gasline project that the state of Alaska seeks to do with a third party," said Tony Palmer, TransCanada vice-president.

Donald Bullock, an attorney for the Legislature, testified that the bill does not breach the contract.

"This bill is just raising the questions: 'Is this project still a good project?'" Bullock said.

Transportation Secretary LaHood calls for better pipeline coordination

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Allentown on April 4 to announce federal plans to streamline oversight of pipelines and improve communication among federal, state and local governments and private companies.

"I want to be able to say to people, when you throw a light switch, you shouldn’t cause an explosion in your front yard," the secretary, Ray LaHood, said in an interview. "We ought to have the decency to tell people there’s a pipeline in the front yard, if they want to know that."

Pipeline owners will come under pressure to assure that their pipelines, mostly out of sight and out of mind, are safe, he said.

LaHood invited CEOs of pipeline companies to Washington later in the week for a private meeting to discuss pipeline safety efforts.

"I asked them to provide me a list of their assets and their plans to replace the assets that are not service-worthy," LaHood said. "We're trying to step up here. I think it's our view that someone needs to step up and let the American people know there are pipelines running all over America and many of them were put in the ground 100 years ago when a lot of these communities didn't exist."

During his visit to Allentown, LaHood toured the site of a Feb. 9 natural gas explosion that killed five people and led to the demolition of eight homes.

At Allentown, LaHood discussed the president's budget proposal to increase funding for federal safety professionals.

LaHood testified on March 29 before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies about Obama's proposal to put more money toward closing regulatory loopholes and improving pipeline safety oversight.

The administration's 2012 budget calls for $221 million for the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to "help ensure that families, communities and the environment are unharmed by the transport of chemicals and fuels on which our economy relies," LaHood said in a statement.

The condition of the cast-iron gas pipeline snaking through Allentown remains a top concern for city residents and politicians. The cracked pipe dug up five days after the explosion at 13th and Allen streets dates to 1928 and has been sent to a New Jersey laboratory for testing.

Officials from UGI Corp. said earlier this month at a hearing in Allentown that it will take the company 40 years to replace its entire system of cast-iron pipes. The company also said the pipeline at the explosion site had little to no "leak history" and was not considered a priority.

Statewide, there are 11,000 miles of aging gas pipelines in Pennsylvania alone like the one implicated in the Allentown explosion because lawmakers, regulators and gas companies have not agreed on how to accelerate pipeline replacement.

Federal investigators in 1992 warned UGI about its aging system in Allentown, saying the company probably would need to replace miles of corroding pipeline to reduce the threat to public safety. The company has said it spends $20 million a year upgrading pipelines.

LaHood is asking Congress to increase the civil penalties his department can levy on companies that violate pipeline rules - to $250,000 a day from the current $100,000, and to $2.5 million for a series of violations, up from $1 million. He also wants to close some regulatory loopholes, including those that allow some pipelines to escape any regulation at all.