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ENERGY: Pipeline and power projects worth a total of $3.6 billion approved
        (AlbertaIndex, March 4, Tuesday)--- Plans for large energy infrastructure projects worth a total of $3.6 billion were approved for construction in Alberta last week.
        The National Energy Board said it has greenlighted Enbridge Pipelines Inc’s application to construct and operate the Canadian portion of the Alberta Clipper Expansion Project.

The $2 billion Clipper project will add a 1,607-km pipeline to deliver crude oil from Hardisty town in Alberta to Superior in Wisconsin, the US. The Canadian portion calls for the construction and operation of facilities including approximately 1,078 km of new 914-millimetre outside diameter (36 inch) oil pipeline between Enbridge’s Hardisty Terminal and the Canada-US border near Gretna in Manitoba.

The pipeline, with an initial capacity of 450,000 b/d, is expected to be completed by December 2009.

In making its decision, the board said it was presented with evidence from intervenors on many issues including impacts to Aboriginal peoples and the impact of the project on domestic interests.

It said: “The board is satisfied from the evidence that the Alberta Clipper facilities are, and will be, required by the present and future public convenience and necessity and therefore find that approval of Alberta Clipper is in the public interest.”

The board said it attached a number of conditions to the approval of this project including one that requires Enbridge to conduct an emergency response exercise at its South Saskatchewan River crossing. This condition is in response to public concerns raised during the hearing process. The exercise tests response procedures, equipment, timing, safety procedures, communications systems, training of company personnel, and the effectiveness of continuing education programs.

This is to be completed within six months of the start of operation and a report on the test must be filed with the NEB.

During the public hearing process, a number of organizations and groups, which had been registered as intervenors in the hearing, reached settlement agreements with Enbridge. The Manitoba Pipeline Landowners Association and the Saskatchewan Association of Pipeline Landowners both reached settlement agreements with Enbridge prior to their planned oral hearing date.

Evidence the two groups had previously filed was treated as a letter of comment. Three Aboriginal groups --- the Red Pheasant First Nation, the Keeseekoose First Nation and the Poundmaker First Nation --- also reached settlement agreements with Enbridge prior to their oral participation in the hearing.

The NEB is an independent federal agency that regulates parts of Canada’s energy industry. Its purpose is to promote safety and security, environmental protection, and efficient energy infrastructure and markets in the Canadian public interest, within the mandate set by Parliament in the regulation of pipelines, energy development and trade.

Earlier, utility company Enmax Corp said Calgary city had approved its $1.6 billion plan to build two power plants to supply more than two-thirds of electricity needs of its million-plus population.

Enmax said it plans to construct a 1,000-MW plant, capable of using either natural gas or gasified coal, by 2011, and a 120-MW gas-fired plant by mid-2009.

Power supplies for the rapidly growing city -- the center of Canada's booming energy industry -- have been strained by inadequate transmission capacity. A new line to bring electricity from big generating plants in northern Alberta has been proposed, but the project is mired in a regulatory dispute.

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