From Al Monaco, president and CEO of Enbridge Energy Partners, from a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Calgary:
We used to think about risks in the energy business primarily related to ho we are going to get more supply. The reality is that today in North America, it’s not about that. It’s about how we get our product to market.
The Wall Street Journal, “Emboldened By Keystone, Critics Delay New Pipelines,” 12/10/14
Enbridge is dealing with delays on four of its pipeline projects, worth over $10 billion. Fresh from their successful 6-year delaying action on Keystone and the recent Senate vote against it, opponents are challenging other pipelines. They are delaying approvals and construction on 6 other pipelines representing investments of over $15 billion. Pipelines are cheaper and less dangerous than transporting oil by railroad. Some opposition is based on potential disruption of environmentally sensitive areas, but a lot of it is just antipathy towards petroleum-based energy. In the dreams of the anti-oil crowd, solar, wind, and geothermal will replace oil if the government will just throw enough money their way. The reality is that we’re going to be using hydrocarbons for a big share of our energy for the next several decades. The alternatives are neither technologically feasible on a large enough scale or cost competitive, so shouldn’t oil be transported in the safest and cheapest way possible?
