It was an announcement that didn't
surprise anyone – the National Energy
Bureau (NEB) released a decision
“conditionally” recommending the
federal government approve Kinder-
Morgan's 6.8 billion dollar Trans
Mountain pipeline project. If built,
the pipeline would “twin” an already
existing pipeline to move heavy tar
sands oil from Edmonton to Burnaby
for export. Indigenous, environmental
and community organizations, many of
whom were shut out of the NEB process,
have vowed to continue organizing to
ensure the dangerous pipeline is not built.
Environmental Concerns Cannot Be
Taken Lightly
More than 20 municipalities and 17 First
Nations along the proposed expansion’s
route are in strong opposition to the
project, and the majority of the 400
interveners and 1,250 commentators
who participated in the NEB hearings
for the Trans Mountain expansion argued
against it.
If built, the pipeline would triple the
amount of oil being moved on the route
to 890,000 barrels a day. This oil would
cross approximately 900 watercourses
between Edmonton and Burnaby. The
pipeline would increase oil tanker traffic
in the Burrard Inlet from 60 to more than
400 a year. These tankers would all have
to navigate several narrow passages, three
bridges, heavy boat traffic and strong
currents before reaching more open
waters.
Kinder Morgan is a Texas-based oil
company doesn’t exactly have a stellar
environmental record. According to
a report by environmental advocacy
group STAND, Kinder-Morgan has
been responsible for least 1,800 oil
and chemical spill violations since its
incorporation in 1997. The more than
$2 million they have had to pay in
international fines is certainly calculated
as part of the “cost of doing business”.
Beyond that, Oil Change International
modelled the North American pipeline
and refinery system, and found that even
without oil spills the Trans Mountain
expansion would release as much as
163 million tonnes of greenhouse gas
emissions per year. That’s the equivalent
of putting 34 million new cars on the
road or operating 42 coal plants.
All this risk and damage for less than
100 predicted permanent jobs, and less
than one percent of profits returned from
corporate taxes? Just like the export of
raw logs which devastated the industry,
the heavy oil in the Trans Mountain
pipeline would be primarily unrefined as
well.
Is the NEB Really “Independent”?
While the NEB bills itself as an
independent economic regulatory agency
created to oversee “international and
inter-provincial aspects of
the oil, gas and electric utility
industries” its many scandals
have left many thinking
otherwise.
- During the NEB review of
the Trans Mountain pipeline
it refused to consider a report
from the National Academy
of Sciences that found diluted
bitumen sinks in water. It also
refused to consider the effects
of burning the heavy crude
blend, which would account
for 90 per cent of the project’s
global climate impact.
- Economist Robyn Allan quit
the NEB hearings and wrote
a scathing open letter stating,
“the NEB has designed the
scope of its review so narrowly,
restricted participation so
profoundly, and removed essential features of quasi-judicial
inquiry—such as cross-examination—
so completely, that it pre-determines an
outcome that favours Kinder Morgan
and puts the rest of us at risk.”
-
Recently the NEB also conditionally
approved Enbridge’s Northern Gateway
pipeline despite the nearly unanimous
opposition of all presenters at the Board’s
hearings. 1,159 of 1,179 submissions
were opposed to the pipeline, including
almost every expert witness.
- The “independent” NEB was forced
to postpone the Kinder Morgan
hearings when it was revealed that the
Conservative government had appointed
Steven Kelly, a consultant who actually
worked for Kinder
Morgan on the
Trans Mountain
pipeline file, to a
seven year position
on the NEB Board.
- This January
the annual report
from federal
environment
commissioner
Julie Gelfand
“concluded that
the board did
not adequately
track companies’
implementation of
pipeline approval
conditions and
that it was not
consistently
following up on
company deficiencies.” The audit checked
49 cases and found 24 in which key
documentation was missing, inaccurate
or lacked an analysis or conclusion about
whether conditions had been met.
Indigenous Self-Determination
It is worth repeating that British
Columbia is almost entirely unseeded
indigenous land, with no agreements
between the government and indigenous
nations allowing their territories to be used
for resource extraction or transportation.
The Federal Liberal government has
also recently promised to implement
the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous People.
Article 32 of the UN Declaration reads:
“States shall consult and cooperate
in good faith with the indigenous
peoples concerned through their own
representative institutions in order to
obtain their free and informed consent
prior to the approval of any project
affecting their lands or territories and
other resources, particularly in connection
with the development, utilization or
exploitation of mineral, water or other
resources.”
Indigenous and Northern Affairs
Minister Carolyn Bennett has been
avoiding addressing directly whether
this would give veto power to indigenous
nations regarding projects like the Trans
Mountain pipeline, but there is no way
they are going to be able to present
federal government approval of the
pipeline in the face of opposition from 17
First Nations in Canada (as well as 4 just
across the border in the United States) as
“free and informed consent”.
The Tseil-Waututh nation has also
already released its own report assessing
the risks and damages of the Trans
Mountain pipeline as part of its rejection
of the pipeline being built on its territory.
The Bottom Line
Justin Trudeau has made the situation
more complicated by announcing a
second “parallel” panel of 3 people to
gather information from the public
and indigenous communities on the
Kinder Morgan proposal. The Liberals
says it’s part of an effort to restore
public trust in the review process, which
was undermined under the previous
Conservative government.
The government can commission all the
new reviews it wants, but it won’t change
the clear opposition of the indigenous
nations whose land the pipeline would
have to be built on.
It also won’t change the clear scientific
fact that the building of any new
pipeline to transport tar sands oil will
make it impossible to meet the climate
change emissions targets the Canadian
government has already committed itself
to. Climate change targets that many
scientists say were
not sufficient to
begin with.
The opposition
to the Trans
Mountain pipeline
isn’t just rooted in
valid local concerns
about the risks
involved in its
construction and
operation, but in
the larger questions
of indigenous self-
determination and
the very real threat
of climate change
to our existence
on this planet. The
NEB is purposely
out of touch with
these realities and
once again the Liberal government is
promising to please everyone at once.
As Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the
Union of BC Indian Chiefs said recently
at community forum addressing the
Trans Mountain pipeline, “This is not
the time to be eloquent, or nice, or polite.
This is the fight of our lifetime. It’s the
fight of a generation. We have to be loud
and proud. There have to be 10 times
the number of people in the streets.” We
agree. This is the time to come together
to educate, organize and mobilize against
Kinder-Morgan’s Trans Mountain
pipeline.
Follow Thomas Davies on Twitter:
@thomasdavies59
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