May 26, 2016 - Ultimately, it’s up to Justin Trudeau. Faced with his first pipeline challenge, the Liberal prime minister can say either yes or no. A decision has to be made before the end of this year on Kinder Morgan’s plan to expand its Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
It’s a hot-button issue in B.C.’s Lower Mainland, where the pipeline terminates to deliver its cargo from the oil sands of Alberta.
The National Energy Board has given its conditional approval for the $6.8 billion project.
May 26, 2016 - Two major fires have burned huge swaths of forest through the heart of the oil and gas patch in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta without causing any damage to infrastructure.
Pipelines, compressor stations, tank farms and active wells – all processing highly flammable hydrocarbons – have at times been surrounded by the huge fires, which have destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest north of Fort St. John.
The decision by the National Energy Board (NEB) to approve the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project is a “call to arms” said the Grand Chief of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.
Stewart Phillip is a well-known opponent of the project and was arrested in the fall of 2014 on Burnaby mountain for protesting Kinder Morgan and says he “absolutely, without question,” is willing to get arrested again.
The federal government has rejected a call from the Royal Society of Canada and some 250 scientists and academics to put a halt to British Columbia’s Site C hydroelectric project despite concerns that the federal-provincial approval in 2014 ignored serious environmental impacts and trampled on First Nations’ rights.
May 19, 2016 4:19PM EDT - The National Energy Board has conditionally approved the $6.8-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project.
The regulator said Thursday that Kinder Morgan Canada Inc.’s Trans Mountain project must meet 157 conditions.
“These conditions would address issues such as safety, protection of the environment and other considerations,” the NEB said in a 533-page report. The conditions address areas such as engineering, safety, the environment, socio-economic issues and emergency management.
For all the political noise coming from municipalities and provinces in opposition to various pipeline projects, in reality they may lack any legal leverage to stop the projects or insist on conditions.
Tuesday, May 17 - In the spring of 2015, B.C. Premier Christy Clark challenged jurisdictions around the world to meet or beat her province’s world-leading climate action plan. Now her government is wrestling with rising CO2 levels while Alberta and Ontario have moved aggressively to reduce their provincial greenhouse gas emissions.
