The company that was building it, declared it dead long ago, but Premier Jason Kenney isn’t ready to perform Last Rites on a pipeline to get Alberta oil to the East Coast..New Tory leader Erin O’Toole used his first meeting with a provincial premier this week to try and convince Francois Legault on the benefits of getting Alberta’s oil to east coast refineries..But O’Toole left the meeting with the Quebec premier admitting the Energy East plan is dead..But Kenney said he still hasn’t given up hope, laying the blame for TC Energy being forced to shelve the plan at the feet of Prime Minister Trudeau and former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley..“Because of the Federal Liberal government – and an NDP government in Alberta that stood idly by – TC Energy took Energy East off the table in 2017. But we’ve not given up on a West-East pipeline to get Canadian energy to the port of Saint John and displace dictator oil imports,” said Kenney.. Defying crackdown, hundreds march against lockdowns in Calgary .Kenney also praised O’Toole – who he supported in the Tory leadership race – for bringing up the issue of pipelines with Legault and Western alienation with Trudeau..“I, for one, and Alberta’s government have not given up on the dream or a vision of an West-East pipeline system that takes Alberta oil to the port of St. John to the Irving Refinery to displace Saudi Oil imports,” Kenney said..The initial project would have converted about 3,000 km of natural gas pipeline, which currently carries natural gas from Alberta to the Ontario-Quebec border, to diluted bitumen transportation,.The $12 billion pipeline would have been the longest in North America when complete..The project was cancelled on Oct. 5, 2017 by TC Energy..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.TWITTER: Twitter.com/nobby7694
