Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline is one-step closer to getting Alberta’s landlocked oil to tidewater after the National Energy Board conditionally approved the proposed project with 157 conditions, May 19.
The controversial project envisions tripling the amount of oil transported by pipeline from Strathcona County, near Edmonton, to Burnaby, B.C. running directly through Jasper National Park.
The federal government now has seven months to make a decision on the proposed project before construction can begin.
If given the green light, the company will be required to meet all of the conditions, including 49 environmental requirements, before it can twin the 1,150 km long pipeline.
The proposed expansion would include building approximately 987 km of new pipeline and reactivating 193 kms of existing pipeline–the majority of which already runs through Jasper National Park.
Once completed, the twinning would allow 890,000 barrels of oil to pass through the park a day, nearly three times the amount that travels through it today.
In 2008, Trans Mountain installed a second pipeline in Jasper National Park adjacent to its existing pipeline, known as the Anchor Loop project. The 158 km pipeline runs between Hinton and Hargreaves, B.C., just west of Mount Robson Provincial Park.
The pipeline has sat dormant since it was completed, but if the $5.4 billion project is approved the pipeline will eventually join the new pipeline that’s being proposed.
Jill Seaton, chair of the Jasper Environmental Association, voiced her concern about the proposed project.
“It’s only an approval by the NEB,” said Seaton, “Hopefully they’re going to look at this closely and take people's opinions seriously, particularly First Nations people.”
She said her biggest concern is that the original pipeline that was built in Jasper is over 60 years old.
Adding to her concern she pointed to Enbridge Energy’s 40-year-old pipeline that ruptured spilling more than 3.7 million litres of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010.
“The one that burst down there was a 40-year-old pipeline and this one up here is 20 years older than that and I think the risk is unconscionable,” said Seaton, adding the first pipeline that was built in Jasper National Park crosses wetlands.
She also questioned how building more pipeline capacity will limit green house gas emissions that are responsible for climate change.
“The Liberal platform is to limit climate change to under two degrees so why are they talking about shipping out 900,000 barrels of oil per day?”
“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Seaton. “They’re enabling other people to burn that filthy stuff somewhere else so the whole planet suffers for it.”
Trans Mountain and the provincial government both welcomed the news.
“The decision is the culmination of a lengthy and thorough regulatory review process and considers the many thousands of hours of environmental and technical studies, scientific evidence and community engagement that have been part of this comprehensive assessment,” wrote Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada, in a press release.
The provincial government emphasized the importance of finding a balanced solution between economic prosperity and protecting the environment.
“Today’s recommendation by the National Energy Board fits a responsible national approach to energy infrastructure,” wrote Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd, in a press release.
“Canada is balancing the need for much stronger action on climate change with the need to pay for that action, by sustainably developing our natural resources – including our energy resources.
“Finding this balance will create jobs and economic prosperity, and help Canada overcome the current commodity price shock.”
Paul Clarke
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