From the selection and testing of the steel at the pipe mill to the ongoing testing and inspection of the pipe during and after construction and then over the life of the pipeline, TransCanada’s care and scrutiny is designed to make sure the pipeline performs as promised. Our commitment to customers, public safety and the environment demands nothing less.

There is no advantage to TransCanada or any energy transportation company to operate assets that are inefficient, compromise public safety or endanger the environment.

“We have an absolutely outstanding safety record. We have consistently invested in pipeline safety and integrity and in personal and occupational safety,” said Vern Meier, TransCanada vice-president of pipeline safety and compliance. “The commitment is there. We’ve done things internally that are clearly leading edge within the industry, and we have validated and verified that what we’re doing is the right thing.”

TransCanada’s commitment to safety and its confidence in our ability to deliver a robust pipeline integrity management program took concrete form in an agreement we signed with the U.S. Department of State during the Keystone XL permitting process.

TransCanada agreed to 57 construction and operating conditions proposed by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that no other pipeline has ever faced. By adhering to those conditions – and building safety into every aspect of the Gulf Coast Pipeline’s construction and operation – TransCanada and the industry begin a new era of pipeline safety.

It is at least likely the high standards incorporated in the 57 conditions will become the norm. Until then, the Gulf Coast Pipeline, which is expected to begin service later this year, is in a category of scrutiny and operational excellence without parallel.

One good example: Condition 49, “Anomaly Evaluation and Repair.”

Condition 49 states that the Gulf Coast Project is obligated to inspect the pipeline and address anomalies that previous pipelines only had to report, but not necessarily act upon. TransCanada is using high-resolution instruments to look for indications of potential construction-related damage, however slight. Prior to operating the pipeline, those indicated locations will be investigated.

The practical implications of having higher standards and improved detection are obvious. First, the Gulf Coast Pipeline will have an added measure of safety. Second, the heightened standards for pipeline integrity mean that more reported indications are uncovered for verification and addressed before putting the pipeline in service.

“Inspecting a pipeline after construction is nothing new for TransCanada. We inspect our pipelines after construction to see if any damage might have occurred when the pipeline was being lowered into the ditch or when the ditch was filled back in” says David Penning, manager of the Gulf Coast Pipeline project. “Inspection of the pipeline is not a one-time event. Federal regulation requires us to conduct regularly scheduled inspections to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and must be done for the lifetime of the pipeline.”

What’s different for Keystone XL and the Gulf Coast Pipeline, Penning said, is that although TransCanada already has stringent guidelines around pipeline integrity and safety in place we have committed to incorporate the additional Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Association (PHMSA) 57 special conditions to further ensure integrity of the pipeline

“The federal code requires that pipeline operators look for small dents or shallow scrapes in the coating of the pipe after construction is complete,” he said. “What’s new with Keystone XL and the Gulf Coast Pipeline is that we committed not only to look for imperfections like that, we further agreed to excavate those sites, visually inspect the indication and any other findings and then address the issue.”

After visual inspection, TransCanada is guided by federal regulation as to next steps. That can include removing a section of pipe and replacing it with new pipe. “In some instances, we are required under the PHMSA 57 special conditions to remove an anomaly that would have been normally managed as part of the operator’s integrity management plan as part of the federal code,” Penning said. “It is disappointing that this unprecedented level of precaution for the safety of the public and integrity of the pipeline would be viewed negatively.”

Project opponents have characterized TransCanada’s meticulous attention to safety as an indication that the portions of the Gulf Coast Pipeline currently being inspected are flawed. The point to remember is that TransCanada is implementing an integrity program like none before. To protect the public and its assets, TransCanada is going the extra mile to make sure it has the safest pipeline that technology and high operating standards can deliver.

The facts are plain:

• The pipe being used in the Gulf Coast Pipeline is not faulty.
• There is no issue with the safety or integrity of the completed portion of the Gulf Coast Pipeline in East Texas. Before any of our projects go into commercial service, they go through many different kinds of tests and inspections – using some very precise and specialized equipment that can detect minute imperfections.
• We have already inspected and tested portions of the pipeline using water pressure and remote sensing. We have used ultrasonic or X-ray inspection tools to inspect each weld. The inline inspection to uncover minor imperfections is standard operating procedure. Every inch of pipe in the Gulf Coast Pipeline will undergo the same rigorous inspection procedures.

 
The Gulf Coast Pipeline project is nearing 80 per cent completion. It is on track to begin flowing crude oil from the storage hub near Cushing, Okla., to the refinery complex near Port Arthur, Texas. But not until TransCanada has done everything it can to ensure the pipeline’s safe and efficient operation.

As the former acting administrator for PHMSA, Brigham McCown, said: “While pipelines are already, by far, the safest and most environmentally friendly method to transport crude oil, the Gulf Coast Pipeline includes 57 special conditions, many of which go above and beyond what the federal government requires. The result is that the Gulf Coast Pipeline provides a greater safety margin than any other pipeline.”

TransCanada President and CEO Russ Girling joined his counterparts from Canada’s five largest pipeline companies on June 5 to discuss the role of leadership in enhancing the industry’s safety record. The CEOs were participating in the National Energy Board’s annual forum on safety in the energy industry.

The following is an abridged version of Girling’s speech to forum delegates about TransCanada’s safety record and his thoughts about how instilling a strong safety culture is key to achieving the industry’s goal of zero pipeline leaks and safety incidents:

I would like to start by thanking National Energy Board Chairman Gaétan Caron and the NEB for your leadership in keeping the Canadian pipeline industry at the leading edge of safety awareness, technology and performance. In large part, because of your efforts and collaboration with the industry, Canadians enjoy one of the lowest incident rates in the world and our Canadian industry is looked to for advice and as an example of best practice.

That said, over the past couple of years public confidence in what we do has been shaken. And rightfully so. Several high profile, horrific events have occurred that have resulted in significant environmental, property and human tragedy. The scenes of these events have been repeatedly played on 24/7 news networks and through social media – like never before – bringing the worst of our industry into mainstream conversations. As a result, public trust has eroded and many are questioning what we do and how we do it – no matter where in the world or what companies are involved – these incidents have impacted the perception of our whole industry.

As an industry and as individual companies we need to work together to understand why these events occur and what we can do collectively to improve performance, minimize the probability of recurrence and regain public confidence in what we do. If we do not regain confidence, we will lose our social license to build and operate – this is not about choice. If we do not maintain the authority to build and operate, simply – we are out of business – and as CEOs there is nothing more fundamental to our businesses than that.

TransCanada is a diversified, leading North American energy infrastructure company with operations across three core businesses: natural gas pipelines, power generation, and oil pipelines. At their core, all three businesses are very similar. Basically, we build and operate massive steel and rotating machinery to transport and process liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons and produce energy from a myriad of fuels. Businesses upon which the public depends to meet their daily needs to heat their homes, cook their food and power their vehicles and the energy our nation needs to keep the lights on and the economy moving. These are important businesses, but businesses that have inherent risk that needs to be managed very carefully. Today, we operate assets valued at close to $50 billion, and we have $25-billion in commercially-secured projects underway and another $20 billion in development.

We are very proud of our 60 year track record of safety and environmental performance. But we are not where we want to be yet, and I am not sure we will ever be satisfied when it comes to safety. However, I believe we are on the right track through the building of a culture and governance that guides decision-making and state-of-the-art asset management systems that ensure rigor and discipline in all of our many processes.

In TransCanada, our safety culture is predicated on the concept that all accidents are preventable and that ZERO incidents is our ultimate goal. The first step towards ensuring we have a safe environment is ensuring we have a workplace where the company’s priorities are clearly articulated and aligned with individual priorities and that everyone makes value-based decisions in a similar manner. Ensuring a safe and continually improving workplace requires all employees, from the Board of Directors to the folks in the field, to share a common view of the importance of safety and clear understanding of how that objective fits relative to the other competing objectives in an organization.

It sounds easy enough – doesn’t the CEO just tell everyone safety is the most important thing and everyone follows? Well, not really – there is a long history of incidents that suggests that snappy slogans and green logos alone don’t work. All of the major incidents over the past few years have involved companies that I believe have clearly articulated the importance of safety and environmental stewardship – so what happened? In my view the priorities were not clear.

In large industrial organizations there are many competing objectives – cost management, profit, performance, deadlines, schedules, contractual commitments and so on. All of these create pressures on individuals to act in a certain way. And in my view, it is these mixed signals that are a major contributor to most industrial accidents. If you study the history of industrial accidents, many come back to time and cost pressure; and as a result, all of these incidents were preventable.The question is: how do we make sure that our workforce and our contractors understand what priority we place on safety and how we expect them to act?

Safety forum: The National Energy Board’s Safety Forum on June 5 featured discussion from CEOs at Canada’s five largest pipeline companies.

When we say safety is the highest priority, how do we get them to understand what that actually means? In my view, it’s about culture. It’s about walking the talk, from the Board of Directors all the way to the front line. When we say that safety is our first priority – we need to actually act like it is. For example, do we reward individuals for shutting down a job site or operations because they think there is a potential problem? If there really isn’t a problem, that could be very expensive. It could impact revenue, cost and schedule in a very material way. These kinds of decisions and trade-offs are required hundreds of times each day at every level in the organization. And every employee needs to make the decisions the same way. A well-honed safety culture, in my view, is the only way of making sure everyone in the organization makes the decision based on the same fundamental values and beliefs. This means encouraging people to err on the side of caution – and to make sure these people are supported and rewarded for doing so. We can always make up lost dollars but we can’t ever repair the damage and devastation of a catastrophic event.

At TransCanada, I’m very comfortable we are on this path. For example, last week, we had a call from a local landowner close to the Keystone Pipeline that he observed a sheen on some water along the pipeline. The operating staff quickly determined the safest course was to shut down 600,000 barrels per day of crude oil delivery. Obviously this is very expensive to us, our shippers and the marketplace. It was not an easy decision.

As things turned out, the sheen was actually a sewage discharge from a local farmer – a septic back-up – the sheen had nothing to do with our pipe. I can’t touch every decision in our company and in fact I didn’t even know this had occurred. But I can tell you that when I read about this on my Reuters Newswire it was very gratifying. I was gratified to see our public outreach campaigns have worked – the landowner recognized a potential issue and knew who to call. And I am comforted that our employees felt empowered to make such a decision. To me, that is safety culture and we will celebrate and reward that type of decision-making.

Culture alone can’t solely be relied on – in complex operations such as ours, we need state-of-the-art systems, processes and technology to manage the integrity of our assets. Our systems define how people are to carry out their responsibilities. They are a set of interrelated and interacting processes and procedures used to implement our policies and achieve our objectives. They govern the way we plan and do our work, measure our results and continually improve: We call it the Plan – Do – Review quality management cycle. Once we identify a risk, we develop plans to reduce and, if possible, eliminate the potential for an incident. And in the unlikely event of an incident, these programs work to mitigate the consequences. These systems, combined with our safety culture, give me confidence that we can meet the public’s expectations.

Thank you again to the NEB for providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and enhancing awareness about safety in our industry. I look forward to continuing this discussion as we move forward.

For more information about pipeline safety at TransCanada, see a recent video of our pipeline control centre.

Learn more about the National Energy Board’s Safety Forum 2013.

On June 3, billionaire political activist Tom Steyer made numerous misleading and factually untrue statements about Keystone XL Pipeline, which were published in the Washington Post. We respect that Mr. Steyer has concerns about the project, however many of his claims are simply untrue. We offer our clarifications below to provide context and factually accurate information to address several of these claims.

Mr. Steyer’s claim:

“With Friday’s announcement that the Canadian provincial government of British Columbia opposes the transportation of tar sands oil over their lands . . . ”

Our Clarification:

The government of British Columbia has never once opposed “the transportation of tar sands oil over their lands. ” In fact, Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline has transported refined and unrefined crude products, including diluted bitumen from Alberta to British Columbia since 1953. The government of British Columbia publicly outlined five important conditions that must be met before it will be in a position to offer support for oil pipelines. The Northern Gateway project is a completely different project designed to serve completely different markets. The Keystone Pipeline system has its own unique market – American refineries in the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast. A significant portion of the oil that Keystone XL will transport comes from American oil fields in Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.

Mr. Steyer’s claim:

“ . . . it simply made no sense on the policy merits to allow a pipeline that would enable massive greenhouse emissions. ”

Our Clarification:

Firstly, the crude delivered by Keystone XL will displace crude being shipped to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries on oil tankers coming from Venezuela, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Keystone XL will offset as many as 200 ocean tankers per year, reducing GHG emissions by as much as 19 million metric tons. According to analysis conducted by renowned climate scientist, Paul Knappenberger, the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the use of the oil carried by the Keystone XL Pipeline (operating at full capacity) to produce energy lies somewhere between 0.00001°C and 0.0001°C per year. Pipelines produce the fewest amounts of emissions to move oil to the markets where it is needed.

Secondly, Mr. Steyer conveniently ignores the fact that 70 per cent of emissions are the result of the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial processes. Driving vehicles, operating manufacturing facilities, heating our homes and transporting goods and services to markets around North America – that is where the majority of emissions come from. Very little actually comes from the extraction of oil from the Earth.

Finally, GHG emissions from the oil sands constitute just 0.1 per cent of estimated global GHG emissions. For context, there are two coal-fired power plants in the State of Georgia that produce more emissions than the entire oil sands industry. He may also want to look into the production of heavy oil in his own state of California, since that oil has a larger carbon footprint than oil from the Canadian oil sands.

Mr. Steyer’s Claim

“ . . . it simply made no sense on the policy merits to allow a pipeline that would . . . do almost nothing for our economy. ”

Our Clarification:

Keystone XL supports the creation of more than 20,000 jobs in the U.S. – 13,000 construction jobs (9,000 KXL, 4,000 Gulf Coast Project) – work for pipefitters, welders, electricians, heavy equipment operators and more. It also supports 7,000 pipe-related manufacturing jobs from the pipe being manufactured in Arkansas, pump motors made in Ohio and transformers built in Pennsylvania. Workers in almost every state in the U.S. would benefit.

Let’s not forget the tax windfalls enjoyed by states and counties. In 2012, the Keystone pipeline property tax valuation was more than $535 million in Nebraska alone.

Keystone XL will inject $20 billion into the U.S. economy, increase Americans’ personal income by $6.5 billion and lead to more than $585 million in state and local taxes in states along the pipeline route.

A new study by Creighton University economist Ernie Goss found that TransCanada will spend $570.5 million directly in Nebraska during the operational period of the pipeline (2015-2029), Keystone XL will generate $580.2 million direct construction spending by TransCanada during the construction period of the pipeline (2013-2014) while the construction and operation of the Keystone XL pipeline will add approximately $1.8 billion to the overall economic activity in Nebraska.

That is economic stimulus even a billionaire can appreciate.

Mr. Steyer’s Claim

“[Approving Keystone XL would]  slow our own move to research-based advanced energy independence that will generate hundreds of thousands of American jobs.”

Our Clarification:

Mr. Steyer continues to peddle the false dichotomy between fossil fuels and renewable energy in an attempt to stifle a pragmatic, fact-based debate. Fortunately the majority of Americans, including President Barack Obama , know that a diverse and robust energy mix leads to greater energy security.

TransCanada also supports this position and has already invested billions of dollars in the production of emission-free energy, including nuclear, wind, hydro and solar power, and we will continue to develop less carbon-intense sources of power in response to the needs of the North American market.

Mr. Steyer’s Claim

“The U.S. is now an exporter of oil, and the Keystone oil will be piped across the Midwest down to the Gulf of Mexico where it will then be shipped as a cheap source of energy to our economic competitors in Asia, including China.”

Our Clarification:

This deceptive claim is partly misleading and partly patently false.

Today, the United States still consumes 15 million barrels of oil a day and imports eight to nine million barrels, or close to 60 per cent of its needs. The EIA (Energy Information Administration) forecast in 2012 the U.S. will continue to import 7.5 million bbl/d into 2035 to meet its needs.

It simply doesn’t make sense for companies to purchase cheaper Canadian crude, ship that product overseas while continuing to import higher priced oil from the Middle East and Venezuela for refineries on the Gulf Coast to deal with the eight to nine million bbl/d that must be imported.

Mr. Steyer’s Claim:

“The pipeline will generate profits, but profits overwhelmingly for foreign companies. The project will generate as much as $3.9 billion in additional revenue for foreign oil companies.”

Our Clarification:

Keystone XL’s economic benefits will be felt throughout the United State. As stated previously, the project will inject $20 billion into the U.S. economy, increase Americans’ personal income by $6.5 billion and lead to more than $585 million in state and local taxes. But more than that, energy trade between Canada and the U.S. supports tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S. and will continue to grow for the next two decades. More than 2,400 American companies supply goods and services to Canadian oil sands and pipeline companies, companies such as Caterpillar, Mathey Dearman in Tulsa, Okla., and Hella Inc. in Peachtree, Ga.

The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) released a report in June 2011 that analyzed the economic impacts of the oil sands between 2010 and 2035 on both Canada and the United States; some key findings are:

• States such as California, Illinois, Texas and New York, which are closely involved with Canadian oil sands trade, refining, services incidental to refining, and storage or transportation of oil sands – receive the most benefit
• States such as Illinois, California, Texas, New York and Wisconsin – with big economies and large manufacturing sectors, receive the most benefit from the oil
• Total GDP impact of oil sands investment and operations over a 25-year period is estimated to be $775 billion for the United States. U.S. employment, as a result of all oil sands projects, is expected to grow from 21,000 jobs in 2010 to 465,000 jobs in 2035.

Mr. Steyer’s Claim:

“In fact, it appears that among the few Americans who would actually financially benefit from the building of the pipeline are the Koch Brothers . . . and in Canadian regulatory filings one of their subsidiaries declared that it had a “direct and substantial interest” in the construction of Keystone.”

Our Clarification:

This is a red herring of the worst variety, deliberately misleading and deceptive. The “Koch Brothers” are not a customer of Keystone XL, so even though Mr. Steyer talks about how they will profit from its approval, they are not shipping product to their U.S. refineries through our pipeline network. If Mr. Steyer had bothered to examine the regulatory filing of Keystone XL in Canada he would have found 29 organizations and individuals filed for “Intervenor Status” including the Sierra Club.

Safety has always been TransCanada’s top priority and we have an industry-leading safety record to prove it.

Our pipeline incident rate is better than the average in Canada, the United States and Europe and we have more than 60 years of experience building and operating safe and reliable natural gas and crude oil pipelines across North America.

In 2012 alone, TransCanada invested more than $1 billion in pipeline integrity and proactive inspection and maintenance programs to protect our pipelines and energy facilities and we plan to spend an additional $1.2 billion this year.

No one has a stronger interest than TransCanada does in making sure that our pipelines are designed, constructed and operated safely and reliably. The public and our shareholders expect it because it not only makes good business sense, it is common sense.

Recently, TransCanada’s President & CEO Russ Girling visited the company’s pipeline control centre to share his thoughts about TransCanada’s safety culture and to explain how the extraordinary safety measures and latest technology to be used on Keystone XL will make it one of the safest pipelines ever built.

Facts continue to show how Keystone XL Pipeline will be safe and protect the environment along the entire route.

As the public comment period regarding the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) prepared by U.S. Department of State (DOS) for the Keystone XL Pipeline project (KXL) came to a close on April 22, a letter from the Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) caught people’s attention.

It was important for TransCanada to take the time to give the letter a thorough review — by experts both inside and outside the company.

As TransCanada indicated when this letter came out, there are no new issues identified that relate to current laws or practice for approval of an oil pipeline that crosses an international border.

Let’s not forget: More than 12,000 pages of documents have been published on KXL — including four federal environmental reviews in the past five years. The EPA has been a cooperating agency in all of the previous reviews and has been closely involved in each one.

While most pipeline projects take about two years to go through the review process, KXL has been part of the public agenda for almost 1,700 days, more than four-and-a-half years, making KXL the most exhaustively studied, cross-border pipeline ever.

While the EPA plays a role in providing comments and oversight into an application such as this, so do almost two dozen other local, state and federal agencies. Each of these agencies has a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, so the DOS is able to get the best input possible before a decision on KXL’s Presidential Permit is made.

In its letter to the DOS, the EPA failed to take into account a number of key facts about KXL — especially when it comes to safety. Safety is TransCanada’s top priority.

KXL will have a state-of-the-art leak detection system, and we will also evaluate new and evolving leak detection technologies to potentially augment the best-in-class leak detection capabilities of its current systems.

There will be 21,000 sensors along the entire length of the pipeline route, including the Gulf Coast Pipeline, which is currently under construction in Texas and Oklahoma. Sensors, in addition to 16,000 sensors on the original Keystone route, send round-the-clock real-time data via satellite about the operating conditions inside the line.

If an alarm goes off or our highly-trained operators detect something that warrants investigation, the pipeline will be shut down within minutes. And until TransCanada is satisfied everything is safe, the line is not re-started.

In fact, the previous federal environmental review stated that with the additional safety measures TransCanada has agreed to adopt, KXL will “result in a project that would have a degree of safety over any other typically constructed domestic oil pipeline under the current code.”

And while leak detection is essential, leak prevention is even more important. That’s why, in 2011 and 2012 alone, TransCanada invested more than $1.4 billion in our company’s safety, preventive maintenance and pipeline integrity programs. This is proactive work we do every day, making sure that we take reasonable steps to prevent incidents from happening in the first place.

Making sure our pipelines operate safely for decades not only makes good business sense, it’s just common sense.

The EPA letter refers to an “average crude oil” to compare against the “Canadian crude” that KXL will deliver, but this hypothetical “average crude oil” — if there were such a thing — isn’t what Keystone XL will displace.

Different crude oil blends vary from field to field. For example: Heavy oils produced in California have higher emission profiles than heavy oil from Alberta’s oil sands. The light sweet oil that KXL will transport comes from the U.S. Bakken formation. The EPA ignored these facts and failed to recognize that the oil transported through KXL will primarily displace the heavy crudes from Mexico and Venezuela. And study after study shows one simple point: Oil is oil.

As leading climate scientist Chip Knappenberger noted in his response to claims made by professional activists, “the carbon dioxide emissions produced from Keystone XL are only a (shrinking) drop in the bucket of global carbon dioxide emissions.”

The EPA also recommends that the U.S. involve itself in ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the Canadian oil sands. This ignores Canada’s fundamental sovereignty, as well as that of the provinces and local governments that are already leading significant environmental progress in their jurisdictions.

If a Canadian province wanted to “involve itself in ways” to reduce GHG emissions from coal in the State of Georgia (for example), neither that state nor the U.S. government would welcome such “involvement.”

For the record, Alberta’s oil sands have strict regulations. The Government of Alberta implemented GHG regulations in 2007 (the first jurisdiction in North America to do so), requiring a mandatory 12 per cent reduction in GHG emissions intensity for all large industrial sectors, including existing oil sands, or payment in lieu (current carbon price is $15/tonne). Since 2007, these regulations have resulted in GHG reductions of 23 million tonnes, the equivalent of taking 4.8 million cars off the road.

The EPA did take issue with the notion that if KXL is not approved, then producers would find a way to move that product to market. But the reality is that with the delay of new pipeline infrastructure, companies are already looking for ways of getting their product to market.

Rail Theory Forecasts reported 19,000 coiled and insulated rail cars (capable of moving about 10.5 million barrels of heavy crude oil) were ordered by Canadian producers to carry heavy crude, scheduled to be delivered in 2014.

Sixteen rail transload terminals are being built/expanded in Western Canada by six companies. In the U.S., the transportation of crude oil by rail is already 55 per cent higher than in 2012.

So the facts show that the oil KXL will transport will find its way to market because it is needed — by all of us — for products that heat our homes, power business, fuel our vehicles and provide the energy needed to move consumer goods throughout North America every day. And statistics show that pipelines remain the safest way to get it there.

The real issue in this debate about a single oil pipeline is whether or not KXL benefits Americans and is in the country’s national interest.

Does it meet America’s rules and regulations to operate? We believe that the answer to all of these questions is yes. Our customers — including many who are U.S. Gulf Coast refiners — believe the answer is yes. And a growing number of Americans are saying yes to KXL as well. And that’s why TransCanada is committed to working through the regulatory review process and will continue to answer questions as they arise.

We will also continue to work with the EPA and other agencies to reduce GHGs from pipeline operations, as part of the Global Methane Initiative, established by the U.S. in 2004.

For more information, read TransCanada’s full technical response to the April 22, 2013, EPA letter, (PDF, 1.8 MB).

Opponents’ Keystone XL greenhouse gas emissions claims refuted by leading climate scientist.

Recently, Oil Change International, along with assistance from several Keystone XL opposition groups, wrote a document on climate change, with unsubstantiated claims that linked the Keystone XL Pipeline to major climate impacts if the pipeline is approved by the U.S. State Department and President Barack Obama.

Climate scientist: Paul C. “Chip” Knappenberger is Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute and author of the Wall Street Journal op-ed Keystone XL Objections Wither Away.

Each year, TransCanada works to promote Safe Digging Month in April by working with its industry partners to provide important information on living and working near pipelines and other underground utilities . . . and this year is no exception.

As an active member and platinum sponsor of the Alberta Common Ground Alliance (ABCGA), we joined ATCO Gas, Enbridge, ENMAX, the City of Calgary, Telus and Fortis to host a safe digging demonstration at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary on April 10.

It was a crisp spring morning at the excavation site – an earthen parking lot in the northwest corner of the SAIT campus – where we donned protective glasses and hardhats to learn how utility lines are identified and clearly marked so that digging can be done safely.

“Every eight minutes an underground utility line is damaged because someone digs before calling to locate the lines,” said Brad Watson, a TransCanada safety specialist who is the current chair of the ABCGA. “It’s not one month out of the year, it is 365 days of the year that we want to prevent this from happening.”

To illustrate the need for safe digging, Calgary Fire Department public information officer Carol Henke provided a story she experienced first hand. A father and son wanted to erect a bird house the son brought home from school and thought the perfect place was at the end of their flower bed.

“He dug with his hand auger and went down about three feet. The good news is he found his gas line. The bad news is he found his gas line,” Henke explained. “Because he did not remember to click or call before he dug, he ended up needing a new flower bed, a new front lawn and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

Safe digging is a shared responsibility amongst buried utility owners and anyone wielding a shovel – even homeowners, said Mike Sullivan president of Alberta One-Call. Alberta One-Call is a free service that arranges the location and marking of buried facilities before any digging project takes place.

“Everybody has a stake in being a damage prevention champion and that’s what we’re here to promote today. April is Safe Digging Month, we want you to do the right thing. Contact Alberta One-Call, call or click before you dig. It’s the most important choice you can make,” Sullivan said.

The event ended with a backhoe excavating an area only after all buried utilities had been marked and flagged by trained utility locators and the excavation area had been outlined in white paint.

TransCanada will continue to promote public awareness about Safe Digging Month in the coming days and we look forward to kicking off the construction and gardening season right: by clicking or calling before we dig.

Read our You make the call, to dig safely blog post.