Saturday, October 29, 2011

TransCanada : an "American company"


Hey, did you think TransCanada, the company intending to extend the Keystone XL pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to the Free Tariff  Zone refineries in Texas, was a Canadian company? 
Me too. Must be something about the name. And the fact that articles about TransCanada always refer to it as "Alberta-based".

However TransCanada's own K-XL Know the Facts webpage begs to differ. Debunking the "Myth" that  TransCanada is a foreign company operating in the US :
"Like many American companies with operations in Canada, we are incorporated and registered in both Canada and the United States. We currently have 1,631 talented employees in 33 U.S. states. Our U.S. operations are headquartered in Houston and will be responsible for the U.S. construction of Keystone XL."

Huh. 

Now as we already know via Inside Climate NewsKoch exports 25% of all tarsands crude to the US.
In 2009, Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, an Alberta-based subsidiary of Koch Industries, applied for—and won—"intervenor status" in the National Energy Board hearings that led to Canada's 2010 approval of its 327-mile portion of the pipeline. 
The company's Flint Hills subsidiary already has an oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, the starting point of the Keystone XL. It sends about 250,000 barrels of diluted bitumen a day to a heavy oil refinery it owns near St. Paul, Minn., making that refinery "among the top processors of Canadian crude in the United States," the company website says.

Yesterday that same National Energy Board, Canada's presumed energy regulator, rejected the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union's request to hold a new hearing into K-XL. 
CEP, which opposes K-XL on the reasonable grounds it would rather see tarsands refineries built in Canada, maintained "the project had violated its permit by not starting construction by a March 2011 deadline". However, according to the NEB, TransCanada's 'earth moving' activities in Canada apparently counts as a start. 

Meanwhile, south of the border, three environmental groups filed a lawsuit against TransCanada earlier this month for mowing a 110 ft wide swath clear across the state of Nebraska prior to receiving the official US go ahead for K-XL to begin. TransCanada responded that mowing grasslands and moving endangered beetles out of the way of the proposed pipeline doesn't count as a start.

So far, no matter which side of the border you're on, things really do go better for Koch. 
And for TransCanada, an "American company".

Update : From Harvard Business School : a short history of TransCanada Pipelines

TransCanada's "Know the Facts" webpage - June 2012 http://web.archive.org/web/20121109020149/http://www.transcanada.com/docs/Key_Projects/know_the_facts_kxl.pdf

 
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7 comments:

West End Bob said...

Excellent stuff, Dear (Almost a) Lady, Alison - Thanks!

things really do go better for Koch

Aren't you the clever one at 4:02 am PDT?!?

Don't think I'm quite ready to have a Koch and a smile yet, tho . . . . ;-)

Rev.Paperboy said...

I don't think they are doing this because they'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony either.

Anonymous said...

Interesting. All the filings by TransCanada at sec.gov are from a foreign entity. Odd that a U.S. corporation does that, don't you think?

Alison said...

Anon : Not really.

"TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, LP (the “Partnership”) is a limited partnership formed under the laws of the state of Delaware. The general partner of the Partnership is TransCanada Keystone Pipeline GP, LLC, a limited liability company formed under the laws of the state of Delaware which, as of the date of this Information
Memorandum, is wholly-owned by TransCanada PipeLines Limited (“TCPL”) and ConocoPhillips Company. The current limited partners of the Partnership are subsidiaries of TCPL and ConocoPhillips Company. The head office of the Partnership is located at 717 Texas Street, Suite 2400, Houston, Texas, 77002.

The Partnership was formed in 2006, along with TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Limited Partnership, a
limited partnership formed under the laws of the province of Alberta, to own and operate the Keystone pipeline system (the “Keystone Pipeline”). The Partnership will own the portion of the Keystone Pipeline located in the United States, while TransCanada Keystone Pipeline Limited Partnership will own the Canadian portion of the Keystone Pipeline."

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know who actually owns TCKP and ConocoPhillips Company? Apart from the shareholders?

Mummy Wummy said...

HI Alison...oh so glad to see Creekside still on the go!!!
Looks like there may end up being several pipelines and port all vying for that wretched bitumen.

Alberta is in tight negotiations with two new northern projects in the NWT http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/25/alberta-nwt-oil-pipeline/?__lsa=67fc-9f95
And the Metlakatla First Nations is in negotiations with the Port authority of Prince Rupert (link taken down....hmmm), in conjunction with Denmark , Canada and BC. to build a re-fueling station that would handle the super freighters that transport the tar sands (Prince Rupert being a direct line to Asia and Vancouver the only re-fueling stop before Alaska) http://www.metlakatla.ca/

Seems it doesn't matter who 'owns' what....although this is very interesting information, thanks!!!

Alison said...

Mummy Wummy : Thanks for the links. Will take a look and see if they've received sufficient airtime out there. I've rather slacked off on the enviro front the last year given that others do it so much better ... and more prominently.
Have you sent them to Emma Pullman?

Doesn't matter who owns what.
I still think it rather does in a nation state vs shareholders sort of way.
Original post was prompted by irritation at pro-pipeline advocates framing TransCanada's participation as a matter of economic patriotism.

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