CALGARY C The us government will require extra time to weigh approvals for the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipeline projects, and will assess both projects’ impacts on Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced Wednesday the department of environment and global warming will study whether both of those pipeline systems would increase greenhouse gas emissions from connected gas and oil projects.
The government will even appoint three interim board members to the National Energy Board and undertake additional consultations with aboriginal groups impacted by those projects – and other projects, such as LNG facilities – currently under federal review.
Carr said the new measures were meant to “restore the public rely upon the way Canada reviews and assesses major resource projects.”
“Without the confidence of Canadians, none of these projects will move ahead,” he explained.
The authorities is working on a brand new permanent regulatory framework for future projects, however the transitional measures announced Wednesday will affect those projects currently prior to the national energy regulator.
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Canadian Energy Pipeline Association president and CEO Chris Bloomer said his organization is available to new processes which help improve Canadians’ confidence in pipelines, but he’s concerned that people think the present regulatory process is deficient.
“The broader implication would be that the NEB is broken,” Bloomer said. “We don’t think that it’s broken; the regulatory process is robust and also the industry does work with the NEB right overall from existing pipelines to new pipelines.”
McKenna said the new, transitional measures will “allow the federal government to create better, evidence-based decisions on major projects.”
“No project review will go back to square one,” she said.
The environment department won’t read the emissions downstream from those pipelines – meaning emissions from refineries processing and cars burning the oil transported through the pipeline.
Without the boldness of Canadians, none of these projects will move ahead.
However, staring at the upstream emissions from both the Trans Mountain and East pipeline projects is expected to push back both projects’ planned in-service dates.
Carr will ask for the next 4 months to make a decision on the approval of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project – which may carry oil from Alberta towards the port of Vancouver – meaning the us government can make a choice in December 2016, rather than August.
Similarly, he’ll seek extra time towards the NEB’s legislated review time period limit of TransCanada Corp.’s $15-billion Energy East project by 6 months and an extension from the government’s decision-making deadline by 3 months.
In total, the power East project will undergo 27 months of review under the new regulatory process.
TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper said the organization supports “a strong and clear regulatory framework that can help Canadians our commitment to building and operating oil and gas pipelines within the safest and most environmentally sound possible way.”
The new rules can come into effect even as the NEB is in the middle of hearing final arguments for Trans Mountain, which would carry an additional 590,000 barrels of oil from Alberta to the port of Vancouver for export to foreign markets at an estimated cost of $5.4 billion.
The new rules have been the subject of much speculation and debate in recent weeks, including at the NEB’s own hearings on Trans Mountain in Burnaby, B.C.
Throughout a week ago and this week, lawyers for interveners around the project have argued the ongoing process should be stopped until the federal Liberals amend the procedure.
Kinder Morgan filed its application to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline system back in 2013 and it is nearing no more the present regulatory process.
“While we’ve concerns about how this delay could change up the project schedule, we support the principle that public confidence within the review process is crucial,” Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson said inside a release.
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president and CEO Tim McMillan said he was concerned that the new rules might delay the in-service dates for that pipelines currently under review.
He also said his members, oil and gas companies whose emissions is going to be studied included in the new rules, already are trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under federal and provincial regulations so the new requirements don’t necessarily increase pressure on the industry.
gmorgan@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/geoffreymorgan
