Ottawa to mandate climate tests for proposed pipelines, LNG terminal
The federal government plans to require a separate climate test for proposed pipelines and a planned LNG export terminal, which are now under regulatory review, to determine their impact on Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions, a move that could impose new delays on billion-dollar projects.
The climate analyses are part of proposed measures – which include additional First Nations consultations – that Ottawa will impose on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion and TransCanada Corp.’s Energy East, both currently before the National Energy Board, a government source confirmed Monday. The measures will also apply to Pacific NorthWest’s planned LNG export terminal, currently in front of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
The Liberal government is facing angry pipeline politics that are creating regional divisions in the country as political leaders in Quebec and British Columbia vehemently oppose projects that Alberta’s government and industry insist are critical to their economy. That fight spilled into the House of Commons Monday as Parliament resumed, with battle lines being drawn over the government’s energy and environmental agenda.
Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna are expected to announce the measures next month. During the election campaign and in his publicly released mandate letters to ministers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised more robust environmental review of resource projects, including assessing their impacts on the country’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.
Mr. Carr’s spokeswoman would not confirm the measures, saying cabinet had not made any decisions. “We are working intensely on a transition process for pipeline projects currently under NEB review that is consistent with our mandate and our commitment that no project will need to return to square one,” Micheline Joanisse said Monday. “We will have more to say in the near future.”
Liberal ministers have said projects currently under review by regulators will not be forced to go back to square one with rewritten rules, but will face additional hurdles that will be outside the quasi-judicial regulatory process. The former Conservative government enacted sweeping changes to that process that have been condemned by project opponents, including environmentalists, municipal officials and First Nations.
Alberta’s economy-wide carbon plan will be an important part of the review of the upstream GHG impacts of pipelines, notably the cap on emissions from the oil sands, the federal source said. An industry official who was briefed on the federal measures said the oil and gas sector is being hammered by low prices and worries that delays on export infrastructure will dampen prospects for renewed investment when prices rebound.
Ottawa to mandate climate tests for proposed pipelines, LNG terminal - The Globe and Mail
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