Shares of Kinder Morgan (KMI) are slumping 1.47% to $17.41 in midday trading on Wednesday ahead of the Canadian National Energy Board’s Trans Mountain pipeline review, due to be released tomorrow.
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The company’s plan would add about 980 kilometres of new pipeline and reactivate about 190 kilometres of existing pipeline.
But Kinder Morgan will first have to address 157 engineering, safety, environmental and emergency preparedness conditions, including holding $1.1 billion in liability coverage and detailing its plans to reduce and offset emissions.
“This project is a direct threat to Vancouver’s successful economy and environment”, he said.
This afternoon the National Energy Board delivered an approval of the expansion project despite years of opposition from numerous politicians, civil rights and environmental groups.
If approved soon, the pipeline, deep in Vancouver’s harbour, could provide nearly 900,000 barrels of crude a day beginning in 2018. “We have a very good chance that this government is going to reject this pipeline when they see the opposition in B.C.”, Wilderness Committee campaigner Peter McCartney said.
Pipeline construction along Trans Mountain’s Anchor Loop project.
The decision-making has also been complicated with an announcement this week by the Trudeau government of a second “parallel” panel to gather information from the public and indigenous communities on the Kinder Morgan proposal.
The project includes about 987km of new pipeline along with new and modified facilities such as pump stations and tanks, while 193km of existing pipeline would be reactivated.
February 21, 2012: Kinder Morgan says it wants to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline after receiving support from oil shippers and will begin public consultations.
The company aims to start construction in 2017 and finish it by late 2019. Most of the charges are later dropped. “Despite promising during the election to overhaul the NEB, Trudeau’s Liberals have utterly failed to do so-breaking their promise to British Columbians”. But the Kinder Morgan project would more than triple its capacity.
Andrew Weaver, B.C.’s lone Green MLA and a participating intervenor in NEB hearings for Trans Mountain, took issue with the review process itself. Proponents will also be required to improve consultations with aboriginals.
Earlier this week, the federal government also announced an environmental panel to review the project.
“(Thursday’s) decision does not mean the Kinder Morgan project will be built”, said Adam Scott of Oil Change International in a statement.
“Accordingly, the board concludes that the project is in the Canadian public interest”. It said in a statement Thursday it was “pleased” the board had recommended approval of the project.
The energy board found that while the consequences of large spills could be high, it said the likelihood of such events occurring would be very low given the extent of the mitigation and safety measures that would be implemented.
Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson opposes the project and, while speaking in a Kitsilano park overlooking the harbour, says this is a call to action.
The agency did note that there would be significant effects related to the increase in oil tanker traffic, though marine shipping is not regulated by the NEB. But the expansion, which would increase the transport of crude from Alberta’s oil sand fields to world markets, still faces plenty of hurdles.
The NEB recommended the project subject to 157 conditions, saying the benefits of the project – including access to new markets for Canadian oil, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of long-term jobs – outweighed its negative effects.
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The federal government has seven months to consider the multi-billion dollar project that many First Nations communities have warned against.
