While the fate of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is caught in a fury of politics and headlines, last month the U.S. quietly approved another major border-crossing pipeline proposal. Kinder Morgan's Cochin Pipeline has been operating since 1979 between Ft. Saskatchewan, Alberta and Windsor, Ontario, carrying various forms of natural gas. Now Kinder Morgan will be allowed to reverse the flow and expand the Cochin pipeline system to move light condensate westbound from the new Kinder Morgan Cochin terminal in Kankakee County, Ill., to existing terminal facilities near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. It would carry gas condensate, derived from fracking the Eagle Ford Shale Basin in Texas, that is used to dilute the bitumen in the tar sands.
On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Calgary-based environmental writer Andrew Nikiforuk about how the Cochin Pipeline project reveals the connections between fracking for natural gas in the United States and booming tar sands development in Alberta.
Andrew Nikiforuk lives in Calgary, Alberta and has been writing about energy issues for many years. A frequent guest on Locus Focus, he is the author of several books including: Tar Sands and The Energy of Slaves.
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