Export/Power Lines/Railroads – Page 5

December 26, 2007

Alberta Oil/Tar Sands creating controvesy in North Dakota

BISMARCK — The thought of digging a trench to send 590,000 barrels a day of 100-degree crude oil coursing through a pipe buried in eastern North Dakota’s subsoil has some in this state worried about environmental damage. But the lands where the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline contents will originate are already more ravaged than the amount of potential harm to cropland, waterways and trees between Walhalla and Cogswell, N.D.

Some opponents of the Keystone route through North Dakota cite the controversial extraction process in northern Alberta as a reason to discourage bringing the 30-inch line through on its way to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.

Read the article here: http://www.jamestownsun.com/articles/index.cfm?id=58758§ion=news

December 26, 2007

Opponents of Montana coal plant seek carbon dioxide controls to curb Global Warming

HELENA, Mont. (AP) Opponents of a proposed coal-fired power plant in Montana want a state panel to restrict carbon dioxide emissions from the project to curb Global Warming.

The case could make Montana the first state in the country to force new coal plants to employ technologies that could reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Read the article here: http://www.kxmb.com/News/191921.asp

December 19, 2007

TransCanada urges Alberta linkup to U.S. power grid for Private Profit

NORVAL SCOTT

December 19, 2007

CALGARY — TransCanada Corp. wants Alberta’s electricity grid connected to the western United States, allowing producers to export electricity from the power plants they want to build in Alberta.

Alberta needs substantial new generating capacity as companies pursue projects such as new oil sands projects that consume large amounts of electricity.

Calgary-based TransCanada has positioned itself to provide some of that capacity through new natural gas and clean coal power plants, while it is also behind efforts to build the province’s first nuclear plant.

Alberta’s lack of transmission links, however, means companies can’t send any excess production from new power plants to other markets. Building new plants without links to the United States would lead to an oversupplied provincial market, plummeting prices and little incentive for companies to invest in new generating capacity, TransCanada chief executive officer Hal Kvisle said yesterday.

read the Globe and Mail article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071219.RTRANSCANADA19/TPStory/TPBusiness/Prairies/