WP,pg1: 'Great Pipeline Race' in Canada: Would Transform Pristine Land

[DeepModem Mom]

A 'Great Pipeline Race' in Canada
Two Plans to Send Natural Gas to U.S. Would Transform Pristine Land
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 5, 2005; A01


....Soaring energy prices and profits have revived plans for two massive pipelines -- the biggest private construction projects in North America -- to bring natural gas hundreds of miles south from the frozen Arctic Ocean, through vast untouched forests and under wild rivers, to the United States.

The plans would flood isolated areas of Alaska and Canada with thousands of construction workers, pump billions of dollars into poor native economies, and bring the roar of heavy cranes and bulldozers to pristine areas where it is now quiet enough to hear the hoots of snowy owls and the rustle of pine boughs.

The projects are crucial to keep up with the growing thirst for energy in the United States, say oil company officials and energy analysts. Supporters and opponents agree that the projects would affect Canada's sparsely populated north on a scale larger than the Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970s, and unleash a rush of new exploration and drilling.

"Every square inch is going to be opened to diamonds, sapphires, gold, oil and gas," Michael Miltenberger, the Northwest Territories minister of natural resources, said in an interview in the territories' capital of Yellowknife. "There's an insatiable demand. And the critical first step is the pipeline."

There are daunting obstacles before any construction begins: The two pipeline projects are in competition for workers and capital -- only one can be built at a time. Native groups in Canada have not yet given access rights; environmentalists fret over caribou and the permafrost; and the pipeline companies face a mountain of regulatory red tape and promised lawsuits....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120400940_pf.html

[whosinpower]

1. Well I say

Pi$$ off - the north should be left alone.

[chenGOD]

2. Great news.....(not)

Yay..mess up the environment permanently to meet short term needs.

We humans are so kind to our home.