The Alberta Clipper Sails to Texas: Possible Regulatory Reconsideration in Minnesota

摘要

The oil sands of Alberta currently yield approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil production a day, and most of this heavy crude is exported to the United States for refining into gasoline and other petroleum products. Government of Alberta, "Oil Sands: Facts and Statistics," http://www.energy.alberta.ca/OilSands/791. asp. Planned expansions of oil sands projects could yield production of 3.2 million barrels of oil per day by the year 2019. Id. Current pipeline infrastructure in the United States can transport Albertan production only as far south as Cushing, Oklahoma. With overall refinery capacity already stretched to its limits in the U.S. Midwest, numerous efforts are underway to expand infrastructure in the United States to transport this increasing oil sands production to refineries in the Gulf Coast region. Energy Information Administration, "Country Analysis Briefs: Canada" (April 2011), http://www.eia.gov/EMEU/cabs/Canada/pdf.pdf. The most prominent effort has been the proposed expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline by TransCanada Corporation (TransCanada); however, State Department approval—which is required due to the international border crossing of the new pipeline—was delayed by the State Department on November 10, 2011, to the year 2013 at the earliest.