Nearly a decade after Prime Minister Harper declared Canada an energy superpower, the only tar sands export pipeline that may be operational before this fall’s federal election will run through Hamilton. A First Nations legal challenge is scheduled for June 16 but an increasingly discredited National Energy Board is refusing to delay a pending decision to allow Enbridge to increase flow volumes and start shipment of Alberta bitumen through the controversial Line 9.
The NEB has also rejected safety testing the 40-year-old pipeline running from Sarnia to Montreal by requiring a leak-check using pressurized water. Or more precisely, the Board has refused to explain why it isn’t requiring the hydrostatic test. Montreal recently joined Toronto and the Ontario government in asking for the test, and eight citizen groups now are pushing for an NEB response. The Board has also decided not to require the addition of shut-off valves on both sides of the dozens of streams crossed by Line 9 – a measure sought by the City of Hamilton and others.
However, the Board’s authority and fairness are being increasingly challenged across the country by municipal governments, citizen groups and high profile individuals. The latest was Robyn Allen, the past president and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia who publicly denounced the NEB as “a captured regulator” and running a rigged process. “
The NEB’s integrity has been compromised,” declared Allen in a May 30 open letter to the Board. “Its actions put the health and safety of the Canadian economy, society and environment in harm’s way.”
That follows a joint statement of “non-confidence in the current NEB process” issued by the mayors of Vancouver, Victoria, and five other British Columbia municipalities.
“We have serious concerns that the current NEB panel is neither independent from the industry proponents nor ready or able to assess the public interest of British Columbians,” the mayors declared. “It is no longer a credible process from either a scientific evidentiary basis, nor from a public policy and public interest perspective.”
A similar denunciation from the former head of BC Hydro and a past deputy minister of energy in seven provincial and federal governments shook the NEB last fall. Marc Eliesen called the NEB hearings “a farce” and contended the current NEB decisions “reflect a lack of respect for hearing participants, a deep erosion of the standards and practices of natural justice that previous Boards have respected, and an undemocratic restriction of participation by citizens, communities, professionals and First Nations.”
The challenges to the NEB credibility from Allen, Eliesen and the BC mayors all focus on the proposed twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver that the NEB is still reviewing. Its earlier approval of Enbridge’s proposed new Northern Gateway pipeline across northern BC is facing numerous court challenges and is widely acknowledged to be dead in the water.
A fourth tar sands pipeline – the 4600 km Energy East proposal by TransCanada – is officially before the Board but recently delayed by the company for at least two years because of opposition to including a tanker port on the St Lawrence River. A coalition of more then 60 organizations is demanding the NEB stop that review until it agrees to examine the climate change implications of new or expanded pipelines. And TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline – also a hoped-for tar sands artery - has still not been okayed by US President Obama.
The blocked pipelines along with the sharp drop in oil prices have shut down or postponed multiple tar sands projects that would have added another 1.6 billion barrels of oil per day to Alberta production.
Revelations from the Mike Duffy trial of communications between the disgraced Senator, Enbridge, Prime Minister Harper and other Conservative officials have added another element of intrigue to the pipeline review process.
The Chippewas of the Thames First Nation are in court in Toronto on June 16 challenging the failure of Enbridge to meaningfully consult with aboriginal peoples with lands and/or claims along the Line 9 route. The Ontario Regional Chief has added his voice to those asking the NEB to await the results of this challenge.