Economic reality killed the Energy East pipe dream — and that’s good – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – October 6, 2017)

http://business.financialpost.com/

Dreams and fantasies die hard, especially ones that have little or no basis in reality. Many of us may imagine ourselves as sports stars or corporate CEOs or Nobel scientists, but we all must come to terms with who we really are and the circumstances of our lives. Few of us are the next Jose Bautista or tomorrow’s Angelina Jolie.

So it is with nations whose people must at times learn that their national destiny is not as they once imagined. Canada is one such nation and Energy East is one of those times.

TransCanada Corporation’s decision to terminate the Energy East pipeline to ship oil from Alberta to the East coast and beyond means that Canada must now seriously begin to give up on what may always have been an impossible dream. Canada is not and may never become a global energy superpower.

The political and environmental fevers unleashed by the termination decision should not be allowed to dominate the debate over Energy East, a project that maybe looked somewhat feasible when political circumstances were different and oil was trading at $120 a barrel.

Albertans may cry foul and accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of abandoning the province by shafting Energy East with regulatory overkill. “It’s a shameful moment in Canadian history, an attack on Alberta,” said one Alberta political leader.

For the rest of this column: http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-economic-reality-killed-the-energy-east-pipe-dream-and-thats-good