UPDATE 3-TransCanada says delays to Energy East has cost Canada billions

(Recasts; adds Energy East comments)
By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, April 29 (Reuters) - Delays in approving
TransCanada Corp's TRP.TO Energy East pipeline have cost
Canada's struggling economy billions of dollars, the company's
chief executive said on Friday, adding he was hopeful regulators
would finish their review by 2018 as scheduled.
Speaking on Friday after TransCanada reported a drop in
quarterly profits that still came in above expectations, the
company's Chief Executive Officer Russ Girling said the No. 2
pipeline operator has had difficulty sticking to project
schedules.
Last November U.S. President Barack Obama rejected
TransCanada's controversial Keystone XL pipeline to the United
States after a seven-year delay.
TransCanada is pressing ahead with its 1.1 million barrel
per day Energy East project from Alberta's oil sands to Canada's
Atlantic coast, which is also facing environmental opposition
and regulatory headwinds.
Interim rules for environmental reviews from the new Liberal
government introduced January imposed a delay on Energy East,
and this week the National Energy Board released a preliminary
timeline for its review of the project, which should be finished
by March 2018.
Girling, who was speaking at a news conference after the
company's annual meeting in Calgary, said improving market
access by getting new pipelines built would narrow the discount
at which heavy Canadian crude trades to benchmark U.S. crude.
"The delay is already costing our economy billions of
dollars. Those are the kinds of numbers that have already come
out of the economy because we haven't gotten these things done
over the last few years," Girling said.
TransCanada reported a 35 percent drop in net income
attributable to shareholders to C$252 million ($201 million), or
36 Canadian cents per share. Profit was hit by a C$176 million
after-tax charge related to scrapping agreements to buy power
from coal-fired plants in Alberta.
The company also had weaker earnings on liquids pipelines,
because of lower uncontracted volumes on its Keystone and
Marketlink crude pipelines.
Even so, the results were better than anticipated thanks to
higher income from TransCanada's share in Ontario nuclear energy
company Bruce Power and a lower-than-expected effective tax
rate.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned C$494 million,
or 70 Canadian cents per share, in the first quarter compared
with the same period a year ago. Analysts on average had
estimated a profit of 66 Canadian cents a share, according to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
In March, TransCanada said it would buy Columbia Pipeline
Group CPGX.N for $10.2 billion, creating one of North
America's largest natural gas transmission businesses.
L3N16P4WN
TransCanada shares were last up 0.2 percent on the Toronto
Stock Exchange at C$52.10.
($1 = 1.2523 Canadian dollars)