<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal (and an anti-megaload friend for provideing this link) at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304384104579139842107036238">http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304384104579139842107036238</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 itemprop="headline" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 3rem; font-size: 3rem; font-family: Georgia, 'Century Schoolbook', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Road Too Far: GE Strains to Deliver Energy Colossus</h1><h2 class="subHed deck" style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; min-height: 2.1rem; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 1.8rem; font-family: Georgia, 'Century Schoolbook', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Conglomerate's Effort to Use Scenic Road to Move Giant Machine Stalls</h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The industrial conglomerate makes a machine the size of a Space Shuttle orbiter that can extract crude oil from the depths of the Canadian oil sands. But first it has to get it there, and the only way is a road a federal judge says GE can't use.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last week, GE lost an attempt to overrule a federal injunction preventing it from using a stretch of scenic Idaho highway to haul the giant piece of equipment, called a water evaporator. It has appealed the injunction. For now, though, the evaporator is stuck near the Port of Wilma in Clarkston, Wash., without a way to get to its destination hundreds of miles away in Alberta, Canada.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For GE, which prides itself on solving the world's biggest problems, the ruling has become a headache that could cost the company as much as $75 million in sales. And it is self inflicted.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Two years ago, <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CA/IMO" class="t-company" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">Imperial Oil</a>, <span class="article-chiclet down" data-channel-path="" data-channel-last-price="45.94" data-channel-currency="$" data-utc-offset-hours="-4" data-ticker-code="IMO" data-country-code="CA" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 0, 0); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; position: relative; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="ticker" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CA/IMO" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">IMO.T <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">-0.57%</span></a></span></span> the Canadian unit of <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/XOM" class="t-company" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">Exxon Mobil</a> Corp.<span class="article-chiclet down" data-channel-path="/quotes/nls/xom" data-channel-last-price="87.31" data-channel-currency="$" data-utc-offset-hours="-4" data-ticker-code="XOM" data-country-code="US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 0, 0); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; position: relative; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="ticker" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/XOM" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">XOM <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">-0.17%</span></a></span></span> , faced similar challenges when trying to haul 200 pieces of equipment along the same roadway. But legal challenges to its preferred route led Imperial to disassemble the equipment and move it along interstate highways instead.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The cost of disassembling them and reassembling them was significant. Final construction of its oil sands site exceeded budget by C$2 billion to C$12.9 billion.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It would be fair to say that the cost associated with module delays was the single largest factor," said Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser. All of Imperial Oil's equipment is now made in Edmonton in part to avoid the transportation headaches.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even without the legal obstacles, transporting the evaporators would be a feat. Each weighs 322 tons, is as wide as a two-lane highway and, laying on its side, as tall as a two-story house. Moving it takes two trucks—one pulling and another pushing—with 20 axles along multiple trailers stretching the load out to 250 feet. Interstate highways aren't an option, because the load can't get under the overpasses.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Opponents, including the Nez Perce Tribe and conservation group Idaho Rivers United, say they are concerned the giant convoys will change the character of the national forest and infringe on tribal values.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The holdup is an unneeded hassle for GE as it leans on its oil business for growth as core areas like power generation remain stalled.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The company has been building up its oil field services businesses for the past decade, and GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt has invested to expand its offerings in unconventional fields like shale gas and the oil sands.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GE's Resource Conservation Company International has delivered about 20 evaporators to projects in the oil sands since 2002 but used different travel routes. This time it contracted a producer in British Columbia to make the evaporator after getting the order from an undisclosed client in early 2012.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It mapped out a transport route that follows 100 miles of U.S. Highway 12, which cuts through Idaho's National Forest along switchbacks up to the Bitterroot Range's Lolo Pass. The loads would only travel at night to reduce the disruption because they block the entire road. The convoy planned to pull over every 15 minutes to let traffic pass. An ambulance would travel with the convoy in case of an emergency along the highway. And the lights were to be turned off when passing campgrounds.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GE did a trial run a year ago sending an evaporator over the same pass without incident and secured permits from state highway officials. That made the company think there wouldn't be problems.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The fact that GE had the full support from Idaho Transportation Department "gave us a very high degree of confidence," said William Heins, chief operating officer of RCCI.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But despite 15 months of detailed planning, GE failed to get approvals from the Nez Perce Tribe, which lives on the land around the scenic highway, or from the Forest Service, which has authority over the 100 mile long stretch of highway.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Nez Perce Tribe and Idaho Rivers United objected and in August went to court winning an injunction to stop the megaload shipments pending a review of how the traffic would impact the environment.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GE tried to get the court to reconsider the injunction noting that the delay would be burdensome. Mr. Heins told the court the injunction could cost the company $3.6 million in damages from liquidated contracts, $5 million in increased transportation and equipment costs, and up to $75 million in potential lost revenue over the next year. The judge found GE had made an informed gamble given that the legal troubles that had preceded it and declined to stay the injunction.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How long the review will take is unclear. For now, GE is in a holding pattern, according to Mr. Heins, thinking about alternatives like different routes or modifying the equipment.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The delay is a headache as well for GE's unnamed customer. Costs are already an issue for producers in the oil sands. Canadian crude oil prices are cheaper than those from the U.S. because of constraints in getting the oil to refineries. Some producers have had to cut spending. Suncor Energy Inc., the biggest oil sands producer, and France's <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/FR/FP" class="t-company" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">Total</a> SA <span class="article-chiclet down" data-channel-path="" data-channel-last-price="44.38" data-channel-currency="€" data-utc-offset-hours="2" data-ticker-code="FP" data-country-code="FR" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 0, 0); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; position: relative; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="ticker" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/FR/FP" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">FP.FR <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">-0.30%</span></a></span></span> this year scrapped a C$11.6 billion refinery project.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Transport limits are a known problem. Even the highway from Edmonton to the oil sands enforces restrictions. During the spring thaw, authorities frequently put in weight limits, and large loads can't travel on holiday weekends, said Ross Krill, head of facilities for <a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CA/CVE" class="t-company" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">Cenovus Energy</a> Inc., <span class="article-chiclet down" data-channel-path="" data-channel-last-price="30.99" data-channel-currency="$" data-utc-offset-hours="-4" data-ticker-code="CVE" data-country-code="CA" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 0, 0); outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; position: relative; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; cursor: pointer;"><span class="ticker" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://quotes.wsj.com/CA/CVE" data-ls-seen="1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">CVE.T <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">-0.68%</span></a></span></span> a Canadian oil sands producer. Cenovus ships its equipment in pieces that will fit on the back of a regular truck, what Mr. Krill, calls the standard "shipping envelope."</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Calgary-based company had struggled with third party manufacturers and eventually decided to manufacture all its own equipment in Alberta to limit the risks.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="cid:31922C30-0D65-490F-9E5E-F0C11E4D2A14" alt="image.jpeg" id="31922C30-0D65-490F-9E5E-F0C11E4D2A14" width="640" height="272"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><i>No Megaloads</i></b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.NoMegaloads.com">http://www.NoMegaloads.com</a><br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>