HELENA – An executive for the Canadian firm that plans to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline through northeast Montana said Wednesday he’s confident the project will get final approval from the U.S. State Department.
Corey Goulet, a vice president at TransCanada, also noted that it’s been five years since developers first applied for the international permit to build Keystone – and said it’s too bad that Montana and other states aren’t already enjoying the economic benefits of the pipeline.
“For us, it’s disappointing that we could have finished this project by now,” he said in an interview from Helena. “It’s important for us to move this Department of State process along and get on with the construction.”
The proposed 1,200-mile pipeline from northern Alberta to Steele City, Neb., would carry crude oil produced from the northern Alberta tar sands.
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The U.S. State Department is deciding whether the pipeline is in the national interest. After the agency makes a recommendation – expected next year – the Obama administration will make a final decision whether to grant the pipeline a permit.
The pipeline would have a terminal at Baker, Mont., where oil produced along the Montana-North Dakota border could be transported to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico.
“The fundamentals are very strong for this project and we’re confident it will be approved in the near future,” Goulet said.
Most environmental groups are opposing the pipeline, saying it won’t deliver the promised economic benefits and will encourage development of the tar sands, which contribute to more global warming.
“You cannot ignore that this pipeline is going to facilitate the development of the most dangerous product on earth today,” said Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center. “Development of those resources just means we are relying more on a fossil fuel that will put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”
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Goulet spoke this week at the Montana Association of Counties conference in Helena, touting the economic benefits that would flow to counties along the pipeline route.
In addition to providing many jobs during the pipeline construction, Keystone XL will increase the property-tax base in rural, northeastern Montana counties and help improve the electricity infrastructure in those areas, he said.
Goulet said a draft environmental impact statement from the State Department indicated the project will not create substantially more greenhouse gases. The tar sands will be developed whether Keystone XL is built or not, he said.
The State Department is expected to issue its final EIS this fall, after which it will hold hearings on the project and eventually make a recommendation to the president, Goulet said.
Hedges said climate scientists have said tar-sand development will increase the release of greenhouse gases, and that if there were an easier way to ship crude oil from the tar sands than Keystone XL, the oil companies would be doing it.
Goulet said the tar sands are expected to produce 3 million barrels of oil a day by the end of the decade, and that Keystone XL’s capacity is 830,000 barrels a day, so it won’t be the only route transporting crude oil from the tar sands.
Missoulian State Bureau reporter Mike Dennison can be reached at 1-800-525-4920 or by email at mike.dennison@lee.net.