As it builds out the nation’s oil and natural gas pipeline networks to keep pace with ever-changing needs, the midstream sector has faced a number of challenges, perhaps chief among them regulatory delays exacerbated by organized environmental opposition. An oft-repeated priority of the new administration has been to make it easier to advance the development of new energy infrastructure development. That raises a few questions. How much difference will this apparent change in attitude make? Should we expect a huge surge in new pipeline projects to be approved and move forward? Today we examine major projects that have faced drawn-out approval processes and evaluate the degree to which a new administration can grease the skids for new pipelines.
A long list of major oil and gas pipeline projects have secured regulatory approval and been installed and started up since the beginning of the Shale Era a few years ago, but a number of others have encountered delay after frustrating delay. Seven poster children in this category of stuck or potentially stuck stand out: two crude-oil pipelines (Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipeline—DAPL) and five gas pipelines: Constitution, Rover, NEXUS, Atlantic Sunrise, and Northern Access. Their developers all thought they had done everything they had to do to win needed approvals, but, all of them faced major delays and most still await final approvals.
Let’s start our review of these projects—and what a new administration can and can’t do—with the two oil pipelines, the very controversial Keystone XL (purple line in Figure 1) and DAPL (orange line).
Join Backstage Pass to Read Full Article
About the song
”You Never Can Tell,” also known as “C’est la vie,” or as “Teenage Wedding,” was released in 1964 by Chuck Berry. It’s also the song that John Travolta revived his career on, dancing with Uma Thurman in “Pulp Fiction.”
