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21 May, 2007
The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada has filed a petition with the country’s National Energy Board (NEB) to block construction of TransCanada’s 2,970-kilometre Keystone Pipeline into the US. The union, together with the Alberta Provincial Federation of Labour, the Parkland Institute, and academics, filed the motion on 15 May with Canada’s federal energy regulatory body.
“We’re shipping our natural resources down to the US so they can create upgraded oil products,” said CEP President Dave Coles. “Meanwhile, we’re missing out on the creation of 18,000 good Canadian jobs, and putting our gas supply at risk in the process.”
CEP President Dave Coles
In its filing, CEP cites a study by an independent research firm, Informetrica, showing that 18,000 jobs could be lost by the export of unprocessed bitumen to the US.
The CEP seeks bitumen from the tar sands to be made into refined petroleum products inside Canada. The Alberta oil sands are currently producing millions of barrels of diluted but unprocessed bitumen each day.
The CEP charges that the NEB, and federal and provincial governments in Canada, have done too little to protect the environment and the social well-being of the public interest in the booming oil sands industry of western Canada. “Hundreds of workers in refineries and petrochemical plants have already lost their jobs because the priority of the NEB has too often been fixed on serving the needs of the US rather than Canadian consumers,” said Coles.
The US$2.1 billion Keystone Pipeline is expected to be complete in 2009, and would transport 435,000 barrels-per-day of crude oil from the province of Alberta to the US state of Illinois.