TransCanada Already Planning More Pipelines

Think 590,000 barrels of oil a day is a lot? Get ready for... what's the right word? Black flood? Sludge avalanche? Crude crush? A faithful reader of the Canadian press finds, before even getting court approval to steal South Dakota land for the Keystone pipeline, TransCanada is planning an even bigger pipeline project:

Previously, TransCanada has said that it wants to reach markets even farther away by connecting Keystone's Oklahoma leg, once it is built, to refineries on the Gulf Coast, either by building a new pipeline or by acquiring and converting existing infrastructure.

That expansion was expected to be relatively modest in size. However, TransCanada now sees Keystone Stage 2 as incorporating both the Gulf Coast expansion and a massive new 36-inch pipeline that would transport another 750,000 barrels a day of crude – over half the current production from the oil sands – from Alberta directly to Nebraska, where it would join Keystone Stage 1.

While exact costs and details aren't yet available, the huge new pipeline would cost more than the original Keystone pipeline itself and be in service by around 2012, Mr. Kvisle said. TransCanada expects to launch an open season for the pipeline to gauge shipper interest later this year.

“The construction [of Keystone 2] would roll right into the construction of the other,” Mr. Kvisle said. “It's advantageous to us in terms of procuring pipe … and in terms of securing contractors" [Norval Scott and Shawn McCarthy, "TransCanada Ramps up U.S. Pipeline Ambitions," Globe and Mail, 2008.04.25]

Yup: once TransCanada starts digging, they don't plan to stop. Looks like we can expect bulldozers and pipe-layers tearing up our eminent-domained farm fields and wetlands for years to come...

...or at least until the oil runs out and kills suburbia, Wal-mart, and Disney World. Changelujah! Preach it, Brother Kunstler!