Liberal government’s new environmental rules for pipelines to be released Wednesday

The Liberal government will announce new environmental assessment rules Wednesday afternoon for energy projects C like the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines C that are currently being reviewed through the National Energy Board.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr confirmed the timing of the announcement for the “transition” process for pipelines under review through the NEB. Carr and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna can make the announcement after a late-afternoon technical briefing for press.

“People need to know that the process expires and running and fair. And that’s what we’ll talk about,” Carr said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the brand new rules will factor greenhouse gas emissions, including “upstream” emissions from actual oil production, into the environmental review process.

Carr has confirmed the new rules will affect TransCanada’s $15.7-billion Energy East pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, that are both being reviewed by the NEB.

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It’s believed the brand new environmental review process may also apply to liquefied gas (LNG) projects in British Columbia.

The new rules come each day after the federal environment commissioner said the nation’s Energy Board is doing an “inadequate” job tracking the petroleum sector’s compliance with pipeline approval conditions, which there have been significant problems within the regulator’s reviews of companies’ emergency procedures.

Debate over Energy East has sparked an East-West conflict after Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, a former Liberal MP, and 81 other mayors from surrounding Quebec municipalities arrived on the scene a week ago towards the power East pipeline. That has sparked criticism from Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and the mayors of Calgary and Edmonton, amongst others.

TransCanada’s 4,600-kilometre Energy East pipeline would transport 1.A million barrels of oil each day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Quebec (one in Montreal, one near Quebec City) as well as on to a deep-water marine terminal in Saint John, N.B.

Kinder Morgan’s expansion plans would nearly triple the capability of their current Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 barrels of oil each day from the 300,000 barrels currently shipped within the existing pipeline. The fir,150-kilometre twinned pipeline would run from near Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.