CALGARY C Canada’s largest gas and oil association took direct aim at opponents of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion as it called on the National Energy Board Tuesday to approve the $5.4-billion project in the national interest.
With B.C.’s rejection of Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Canada’s diversification technique is unravelling
Just because the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion appeared to be within striking distance of winning a regulatory permit, the Bc government formally requested its rejection Monday in a submission to the National Energy Board (NEB).
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Nick Schultz, legal counsel for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, asked the NEB to recommend the us government approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion as the final summary argument hearings resumed here.
“Denial from the project could be detrimental to Canada’s oil producers, to Alberta and also to Canada,” he said.
Domestic energy companies have committed their oil production towards the project with the hope that it is construction would allow them to sell their crude to markets in Asia. Right now, almost all Canadian oil exports can be purchased towards the United States.
Schultz asked the panel to think about the advantages of the pipeline to the economy and disregard a few of the evidence from the pipeline.
“You do have some half-baked, so-called evidence within the Gunton report,” Schultz said, talking about a study by Simon Fraser University professor Thomas Gunton that concludes there’s a 99 percent probability of an oil spill in B.C. when the Trans Mountain expansion project were built.
Schultz said the report misquotes CAPP statistics and forecasts and should not be looked at as important evidence as the NEB panel makes its recommendation on the pipeline.
The report also said Kinder Morgan’s applications “contains major methodological weaknesses that don’t offer an accurate assessment from the degree of risk associated with the [project.]”
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Kinder Morgan has requested a deadline of Feb. 19 to provide its final reaction to the summary arguments presented during the period of the current hearings.
The Trans Mountain hearings in Calgary followed 10 days of hearings in Burnaby last month with near-daily demonstrations from individuals who opposed to the pipeline project that would add 590,000 barrels per day of pipeline capacity between Alberta and metro Vancouver.
In Calgary, there were additionally a smattering of opponents away from hearing venue. But there is also a planned illustration showing individuals favour from the project.
Schultz also said that the NEB panel itself have been “subject to unfair criticism” over the course of the hearing process.
A number of interveners during the period of the hearings in Burnaby said the NEB’s process was broken, unfair and biased towards the organization promoting the work.
Schultz said a number of that criticism had crossed a line into “abusive behaviour,” that they said was “shameful.”
Last week, federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr announced the department of environment and global warming would read the Trans Mountain expansion project’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and also the government would take an extra 3 months to determine whether or not to approve the work.
Schultz didn’t address the brand new climate test in the final arguments, but did defend the NEB review process.
He said the NEB had “comprehensive and detailed evidence which to base your recommendation,” adding that “no relevant concern or interest continues to be omitted.”
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