Ship oil and jobs to US

水管工

NEB approves pipeline to U.S.
Labour decries move as contrary to best interests of Canada and its workforce
1 r4 T% R/ }7 i8 a  yShaun Polczer, Calgary Herald; CanWest News Service
5 N2 S/ l0 ~! R; [! `0 |Published: 1:51 am
2 K* N0 v6 F- _. B( }CALGARY - The National Energy Board on Thursday gave its long-awaited approval to TransCanada Corp.'s multibillion dollar Keystone pipeline, unleashing a storm of protest from workers over the potentioal loss of nearly 20,000 oil-related jobs.
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' N8 P+ k; S' j4 vAfter it comes into service in 2010, the pipeline will ship almost 600,000 barrels a day (bpd) of bitumen -- about half of Canada's current oilsands output -- from Alberta to Illinois and eventually on to the Gulf of Mexico.

In its ruling, the board said the 1,845-kilometre project is "in the public interest" and needed for "the present and future public convenience and necessity."

The Canadian portion of the $2.1-billion project is expected to cost $664 million. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 435,000 bpd, expandable to 590,000 bpd.
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4 G4 ~( P4 v1 xA TransCanada spokesman said the company needed to review the decision before making comment. Construction is expected to start early next year with an in-service date of 2010.

% x% }' f9 E8 Z8 ~* N" [* mThe Gulf of Mexico is seen as a Holy Grail for Canadian oil producers that want to expand markets for the country's growing oilsands production.
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But critics were enraged by what they see as an outflow of value-added jobs from shipping unprocessed bitumen south of the border even though the national regulator said the project's "benefits outweighed its burdens."

9 Z% Q4 t- m$ f+ B( s" cAccording to the Canadian Energy and Paperworker's Union (CEP), an Infometrica study showed 18,000 direct and indirect jobs would be lost by shipping raw bitumen to the U.S.

; E  G! o8 B& r' q  F( A6 N"That number was never disputed," said union president Dave Cole.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said the Keystone ruling was an opportunity for Premier Ed Stelmach to force oil companies to upgrade and process bitumen in Alberta. Even as the decision came down, he was busy writing an angry letter to the premier condemning what he called a "bitumen superhighway" out of Alberta.
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"This may be great news for American companies but it's bad for people who want more value added processing in Alberta.
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The provincial NDP is holding a press conference this morning in Edmonton to condemn the ruling.
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, o! S! c) S7 x% Z& t, k  f# t"The Keystone pipeline will export more than bitumen. Thousands of jobs and billions of lost investment dollars will flow south of the border with this unprocessed crude," said opposition leader Brian Mason.

人生几何

严重关切。Alberta 将丢失很多工作机会。 但是现在的加币这么高挺，增加了原油在这里处理的成本。
1 G4 {8 G) \8 C4 L8 E1 Z7 f: j3 j, F好像这个项目的批准一直都拖着，现在加元涨到这个样子了，项目就立刻通过了。商人啊，还是以利益为先。