Major Projects Office can’t back up its boss’ claim Trans Mountain helps fight climate change

The Major Projects Office can’t substantiate its boss’ claim that the Trans Mountain pipeline helps fight climate change. 

Dawn Farrell, the former CEO of Trans Mountain who was tapped by Prime Minister Mark Carney to stickhandle his major projects agenda, made that statement at a recent House of Commons environment committee meeting. The comment was in response to Bloc Québécois environment critic Patrick Bonin asking if she believed the pipeline contributes to the fight against climate change.

“The answer is yes,” Farrell said. “Most of the oil is cracked to make naphtha which goes into petrochemicals, which goes into making electric cars, to electrify the grid in Asia.”

However, only half the oil from Trans Mountain is sent to Asian refineries, with the other half sent to the US, the pipeline’s CEO Mark Maki said in May. 

Farrell, who told the committee she earns about $700,000 per year in her role at the Major Projects Office, did not offer any evidence for the claim. Canada’s National Observer asked the office for evidence that could support her view, including how many greenhouse gas emissions are avoided if the exported oil is used to produce electric vehicles versus burned as a fuel. The office could not say after asking for multiple deadline extensions to provide an answer. 

What the Privy Council Office (which houses the Major Projects Office) could say was crude oil transported through the Trans Mountain pipeline is used to produce fuels, other products like asphalt, lubricants, petrochemicals and plastics, and “as other inputs to lower-emitting technologies.” 

No specific figures or estimates were provided, but if about half the crude from the pipeline is destined for Asian refineries, and a smaller fraction of that to make EVs, Farrel’s claim that “most” of the oil is used in climate-friendly ways is simply not true. For the oil sent to the US, the crude is overwhelmingly used to produce fuels like gasoline and diesel. 

For a typical barrel of crude oil, roughly 20 to 30 per cent of emissions come from the production, transportation and refining stages, while 70 to 80 per cent come from burning the refined product, such as by burning gasoline in a car, a Privy Council Office spokesperson said in a statement.

“Accordingly, when energy derived from the TMX-delivered crude is used for non-combustion purposes, its overall lifecycle emissions are lower than if the oil went to combustible uses alone,” the spokesperson said.

In other words, for the fraction of oil that isn’t burned, the emissions aren’t as bad as if it were. 

Sustainability experts say it’s no surprise the claim can’t be substantiated.

“At the end of the day, making plastic for electric vehicles is a pretty tenuous connection to save the world,” said Aaron Cosbey, a senior associate with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and president of Small World Sustainability Consulting.

Other experts are harsher in their criticisms. 

“The idea that Trans Mountain, in any way, helps fight climate change [is] absolute disinformation,” said Amy Janzwood, assistant professor at McGill University. “There's absolutely no way that's true at all, in any sense.”

In 2019, the federal government said just the pipeline and port activities related to Trans Mountain would add about 400,000 tonnes of GHG emissions annually — the equivalent of more than 93,000 gasoline powered cars driven for one year. 

When factoring in the emissions arising from increased production and use of the oil once exported, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates the Trans Mountain pipeline facilitates an additional 84 million tonnes per year — the equivalent of adding 19.5 million more gasoline powered cars to the road. 

When Farrell first made the comments, Caroline Brouillette, executive director for Climate Action Network Canada, said it was inappropriate for the head of a major Canadian institution to make comments like that and she was “shocked” Farrell hadn’t been publicly reprimanded by Carney. 

Other influential Liberals, including Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin and some members of the party’s environmental caucus have dodged questions about Farrell spreading climate change disinformation at a House of Commons committee. 

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said Carney came to power with a reputation for understanding climate change, but is burning through goodwill with environmentalists.

“He has been actively undermining that reputation to the point where he's really losing a lot of credibility, I think, with environmentalists,” he said. “Carney came in with a lot more credibility than Trudeau did, and has lost it a lot faster.”

For climate advocates, Carney’s decision to appoint Farrell was concerning given her background with Trans Mountain, but she isn’t the only executive from that company to hold a senior position within the Major Projects Office. The office also listed Rob Van Walleghem among its senior staff. Van Walleghem is in charge of Indigenous Affairs at the Major Projects Office, and according to both his LinkedIn and Trans Mountain’s website, he is the pipeline company’s chief legal and Indigenous affairs officer. 

However, the government directory for the Privy Council Office, which lists 14 offices under its purview and staff at those departments, has now been scrubbed to remove staffing at the Major Projects Office. Every other office lists staff. 

Canada’s National Observer asked the PCO why staff at the Major Projects Office was removed, but no answer was provided by deadline.

Mertins-Kirkwood said if the Major Projects Office is simply tasked with developing projects referred to them, he’s not concerned about the potential fossil fuel connections. If on the other hand, Trans Mountain executives were lured to the Major Projects Office because of their experience building pipelines, that’s a red flag. 

According to Mertins-Kirkwood, the optimistic read is that despite the climate harm posed by Trans Mountain, it was nonetheless “textbook industrial policy,” which is what’s required for an energy transition. The pipeline was the result of the federal government identifying a bottleneck in a strategically important supply chain, and then using federal funds to directly address the issue to enable more economic activity. If that strategy were applied to decarbonizing the economy, the country could make significant progress cutting emissions.

The catch is that if a major fossil fuel agenda is pursued — as reflected by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s proposal to revive the Northern Gateway pipeline, or Carney’s decision to task the Major Projects Office with developing a strategy for a major carbon capture project to be paired with a new oil pipeline — there is an opportunity cost at the expense of an actual and necessary energy transition, he said.