Business Roundtable

The world of energy infrastructure saw major, welcome developments this week.

TransCanada news release, "TransCanada Listens to Nebraskans; Updated Keystone XL Nebraska Re-route Reflects Their Feedback ":

"Based on feedback from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the public, we have refined our proposed routing of the Keystone XL Pipeline," said Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer. "The preferred alternative route in this Supplemental Environmental Report was developed based on extensive feedback from Nebraskans and reflects our shared desire to minimize the disturbance of land and sensitive resources in the state." 

• Associated Press, "Canadian firm proposes new Keystone XL pipeline route"
• Lincoln Journal-Star, "Map of revised route for proposed Keystone XL pipeline released"
• Los Angeles Times, "New Keystone pipeline route proposed; activists block Texas site" (Anti-jobs activists disrupt workday, pat selves on back.)

Also from Canada the news via The Globe and Mail, "Shell launches first Canadian oil sands carbon-capture project."

Royal Dutch Shell PLC has begun construction on a $950-million project to capture and bury greenhouse gas emissions, the first of its kind to sequester carbon from Canada’s oil sands.

The project, technically led by industry but largely funded by the Alberta and federal governments, will see Shell grab the carbon emissions from its Scotford bitumen upgrading operations near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and bury them in a deep reservoir 80 kilometres to the north. 

Shell and its Scotford partners – Chevron Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. – have already begun the work of building the project, known as Quest.

And, on this side of the border...

Associated Press, "BNSF expands oil capacity in Williston Basin": 

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — BNSF Railway Co. said it has ramped up its operations to meet the anticipated demands of the Bakken oil boom by increasing its shipping capacity, hiring 560 workers in Montana and North Dakota and investing $197 million in projects in those states.