This popped up on one of my other news feeds just now — the link is here (props to Eye on the Artic for this). The project is the “A2A” project — a rail line from Fort McMurray, Alberta to Delta Junction, AK with connections to “ports near Anchorage”.
One of the main intentions is to use this for crude by rail — likely to include tar sands oil. The bigger point in my mind is the risk of an accident.
Much of the crude by rail can use “diluents” — lighter crude products to make the crude less viscous. In the event of an accident, these volatiles can evaporate as a very combustible vapor. This is where the burning tank cars come from in US crude by rail accidents.
The problem here is that climate change has brought warmer temperatures to the Artic Circle. And this has brought pine beetle and other disease carriers to the northern Canadian Forests.
We have already seem those impacts in the fires in British Columbia in the last several years. A rail accident that starts a fire in the far northwestern provinces in dry timber would be a horror show — no resources and structures to fight such a fire.
This is what the US is assisting.