CALGARY C The federal government will take additional time to weigh approvals for the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipeline projects, and can 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 that the department of environment and climate change will study whether both of those pipeline systems would increase greenhouse gas emissions from connected oil and gas projects.
The government will also appoint three interim board members towards 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 brand new measures were intended to “restore the public trust in the way in which Canada reviews and assesses major resource projects.”
“Without the confidence of Canadians, none of those projects will move ahead,” he said.
The authorities is working on a brand new permanent regulatory framework for future projects, however the transitional measures announced Wednesday will apply to those projects currently before the national energy regulator.
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Canadian Energy Pipeline Association president and CEO Chris Bloomer said his organization is open to new processes that help improve Canadians’ confidence in pipelines, but he’s concerned that individuals think the current regulatory process is deficient.
“The broader implication would be that the NEB is broken,” Bloomer said. “We don’t think it’s broken; the regulatory process is robust and the industry works with the NEB right across the board from existing pipelines to new pipelines.”
McKenna said the new, transitional measures will “allow the federal government to make better, evidence-based decisions on major projects.”
“No project review will go back to where you started,” she said.
The environment department will not study the emissions downstream from those pipelines – meaning emissions from refineries processing and cars burning the oil transported through the pipeline.
Without the confidence of Canadians, none of those projects will move forward.
However, studying the upstream emissions from both the Trans Mountain and East pipeline projects is expected to break the rules both projects’ planned in-service dates.
Carr asks for the next four months to consider on the approval of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project – which would carry oil from Alberta towards the port of Vancouver – meaning the federal government will make a choice in December 2016, instead of August.
Similarly, he will seek an extension towards the NEB’s legislated review time period limit of TransCanada Corp.’s $15-billion Energy East project by 6 months and an extension of the government’s decision-making deadline by 3 months.
In total, the power East project will undergo 27 months of review underneath the new regulatory process.
TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper said the organization supports “a strong and clear regulatory framework that can help Canadians our resolve for building and operating oil and gas pipelines within the safest and many environmentally sound way possible.”
The new rules will 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 in an estimated price of $5.4 billion.
The new rules happen to be 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 in 2013 and is nearing no more the existing regulatory process.
“While we have concerns about how this delay could change up the project schedule, we support the principle that public confidence in the review process is vital,” Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson said inside a release.
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president and CEO Tim McMillan said he was concerned the new rules might delay the in-service dates for the pipelines currently under review.
He also said his members, gas and oil companies whose emissions is going to be studied as part of the new rules, are already trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under federal and provincial regulations therefore the new requirements don’t necessarily increase pressure around the industry.
gmorgan@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/geoffreymorgan
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