OTTAWA – Canada’s National Energy Board has unveiled a new plan to use up the fifteen-hundred kilometres of new pipe originally slated for the country’s recently cancelled East Energy oil pipeline. Electricity, rather than oil, will now flow through the pipes, to power the next generation of electric vehicles.
“Hey, energy is energy. We won’t let those pipes go to waste,” said Regan Donahue, a NRB spokesperson, at a government press conference on Thursday.
Donahue was adamant that the cancelled oil pipline should be looked at as an opportunity, rather than a failure. He briefly outlined the government’s plan to install a series of electric vehicle charging stations along the existing pipeline route for the previously-proposed project to move crude oil from western Canada to eastern refineries.
“It also opens the door for a huge export market for us,” he said. “And there’s the green thing as well. Electricity is a lot less messy than oil.”
The government has projected the total cost of the futuristic electric vehicle infrastructure project at $69 billion over a twenty year period. Donahue said it would have cost more, however much of the groundwork had been laid with the original oil pipeline plan, and many of the regulatory and environmental concerns have been put to rest.
“People aren’t scared of electricity leaks,” Donahue said.
Also, Canadian taxpayers apparently won’t be on the hook for all the costs.
“It’s going to be funded through a public and private sector international partnership,” he explained. Both China and Russia have shown an interest in investing in the project.”
Donahue appeared slightly uncertain when he was asked to elaborate on the export opportunities that would open up as a result of installing the new electric vehicle support infrastructure from west to east.
“The charging stations will supply electricity for the cars of the future,” he said. “But we’ll be exporting it to other countries for their electric cars as well. The electric line ends at the east coast ocean ports, so we’ll be able load it right on to the ships for export.” Source: FNT Staff
Photo credit: Original images at CBC, Global News, Trans Canada Energy and Tesla
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