A proposal to construct a new fracked gas pipeline across rural Hamilton may run afoul of the city’s recently declared climate emergency. The currently preferred route of the Enbridge pipe crosses both Spencer Creek and Bronte Creek as well as a wetland complex owned by the Hamilton Conservation Authority.
The proposed route is north of Safari Road between Valens Road and just east of Highway 6. City council was notified of the new pipeline plans in late February and will shortly receive a formal invitation to participate in an Ontario Energy Board hearing on the project. That hearing will also be open to others including individuals.
Enbridge says it “is undertaking the proposed project to increase existing capacity and accommodate additional demand for natural gas along its main natural gas transmission system, the Dawn Parkway System.” However, natural gas usage has been declining in Ontario. And as a fossil fuel it appears likely to fall much further if serious action is taken on climate change as promised in the city resolution approved at the end of last month.
Staff told councillors on March 27 that action on the climate emergency would “include ensuring that all new buildings are built to net zero [carbon emissions] by 2030 and that all buildings are retrofitted by 2050 to net zero,” and that would need to apply to “not just city buildings [but] all buildings in the community.” And a study commissioned by Hamilton and Burlington on how to achieve emission reductions includes substantial cuts to natural gas use. That’s in line with studies cited by the David Suzuki Foundation that suggest the climatic impacts of fracked gas may be greater than coal.
Modifications to Enbridge-owned oil pipelines in Hamilton over the last few years have sparked protests from both indigenous peoples and climate activists. Opposition to expanded flows in the company’s Line 9 pipeline included a weeklong occupation of a pumping station at Enbridge’s Westover hub; while a more recent project to enlarge its Line 10 export pipe faced several protest actions including an indigenous blockade.
Those two pipelines are used for oil transport, as are most of the projects across the continent that have been most controversial including Keystone XL, Northern Gateway, Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain and Energy East. But gas pipelines have not been spared environmental challenges.
It is a proposed fracked gas pipeline across British Columbia that is being blocked by the Wet’suwet’en indigenous nation whose unceded lands lie in its path. A violent RCMP raid on the Wet’suwet’en in January sparked solidarity actions across the country including hundreds who blocked downtown Hamilton streets.
And there are multiple conflicts in the US over natural gas pipelines, especially those linked to fracking. Vermont is considering a ban on new natural gas pipelines, a huge battle is underway in New York, and a major project in Pennsylvania is undergoing criminal investigation. Indeed widespread opposition to fracked gas pipelines is the reason US President Donald Trump is trying to limit the intervention and environmental rights of state governments.
Ontario accounts for less than one percent of Canadian gas production, and that is essentially confined to the Sarnia area. The Energy East oil pipeline proposal – abandoned after the National Energy Board decided to include upstream and downstream climate impacts in its assessment – was founded on the under-utilization of the pipe formerly used to supply Ontario with Alberta gas.
“For decades the TransCanada Mainline has been used to export natural gas from western to eastern Canada and into New York State,” reports the National Energy Board. “However, the eastern portion of this pipeline is now being used to import natural gas from New York into eastern Canada.”
That report says Ontario now gets most of its natural gas supplies from fracking in the United States and that “the switch from exports to imports is partially explained by the rapid growth of shale gas production in the Appalachia region in northeastern United States which includes the Marcellus and Utica basins.”