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Supporters and opponents of oil pipeline projects were gearing up with preemptive moves Monday in anticipation of announcements expected Tuesday by the federal government.
While Edmonton Mayor Don Iverson was in Vancouver November 28 speaking to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) about the need for new oil pipelines – among other things — Tsleil-Waututh Nation Chief Maureen Thomas was in Ottawa on a last-ditch effort to lobby the federal government to reject the $6.8 billion Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Although it has not been officially confirmed, the federal government is expected to make some announcement tomorrow (November 29). Speculation is that the announcement tomorrow will be about the $7.9 billion Enbridge (TSX:ENB) Northern Gateway pipeline, not the Trans Mountain. The deadline for a decision on Trans Mountain is mid-December.
There is speculation that, while the Trans Mountain expansion is likely to be approved, the Northern Gateway pipeline will not, but that another Enbridge pipeline project – Line 3 – likely will.
The $7.5 billion Line 3 project is a replacement of an existing pipeline that runs from Alberta to Wisconsin. It would restore the pipeline to its original capacity of 760,000 barrels per day. Enbridge currently voluntarily runs it under capacity.
Speaking to GVBOT, Iverson said Edmonton experiences a considerable amount of oil moving by rail through his city. Moving the oil by pipeline, rather than rail, he said would “improve efficiency and reduce risk.”
“By expanding pipeline capacity to tidewater and reaching international markets, we would create Canadian jobs at a time when many are struggling,” he said.
Iverson is the second Alberta mayor to visit Vancouver recently. On November 17, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was also in Vancouver speaking to the GVBOT about the need for cooperation between the two cities and the need for new pipelines.
Iverson told Business in Vancouver approving new pipelines is important to Alberta’s economy, since oil producers there, having only a single customer, the U.S., currently sell Alberta oil at a $15 per barrel discount.
“We’re hopeful that the evidence and all of the conditions and risk mitigation that have resulted from a really robust regulatory process will be sufficient for the cabinet to make some approvals in the coming days, months and years,” he said.
But according to the Tsleil-Waututh, the National Energy Board’s regulatory process was not nearly robust enough.
While in Ottawa, Chief Thomas delivered four reports that she says calls into question the process and some of the assumptions made during the NEB review process for the Trans Mountain expansion project.
She said the NEB “selectively accepted some evidence presented by Trans Mountain while discounting or ignoring other evidence.
“This is about our survival,” she said in a press release. “We continue to see our lands and waters subject to further encroachment and pollution. If the federal government directs that the project be approved, it would reopen the many wounds we have suffered as a result of the Crown’s historic disregard for our Aboriginal title and rights.”
