Tag: environment

Kitimat LNG Project Granted Extension: 250 News

250 News


Kitimat LNG Project Granted Extension

The proponents of the liquefied natural gas terminal to be built near Kitimat now have more time to start up construction.
  

The Environmental Assessment Office has granted an extension to the Kitimat LNG Operating General Partnership’s environmental assessment certificate. Under the original certificate, substantial construction had to be underway on the LNG terminal by June 1st of this year.

The Kitimat LNG Operating Partnership must now have substantial construction started on the project prior to June 1ST of 2016.

Tar Sands Express – Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline or the Railway? Watershed Sentinel

Watershed Sentinel

As billionaires invest in the railways and oil tanker traffic skyrockets along the BC coast, it looks as though the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline may have been a ruse all along  – a classic “bait and switch” – with a number of PR payoff ….

 By autumn 2008, CN Rail approached the Alberta government with its plan to move tar sands oil.  Alberta’s Energy Minister at the time, Mel Knight, told Dow Jones Newswire that CN and his government have had “very good meetings,” with CN believing that it could eventually transport 400,000 barrels per day from eastern Alberta to the West Coast of Canada. 

Just six months later, CN was estimating that it could transport 2.6 million barrels per day to the West Coast if 20,000 railcars were added to its fleet.
On April 15, 2009, the Financial Post’s Diane Francis reported that CN “will deliver the oil sands production through the use of insulated and heatable railcars or by reducing its viscosity by mixing it with condensates or diluents. The ‘scalability’ of the concept – up to millions of barrels per day – means that the railway can ramp up production cheaply and quickly to provide immediate cash flow to producers which otherwise will have to wait years for completion of upgraders and/or pipelines.

No real need for pipeline between oilsands and West Coast: bureaucrat: Vancouver Sun

Vancouver Sun


A multi-billion dollar pipeline project that would link the oilsands region to the coast of British Columbia offers new export capacity that the Canadian industry does not really need, senior bureaucrats have told the federal government… 

 The details of the federal assessment were released in over 300 pages of internal documents from Natural Resources Canada, obtained by Postmedia News, which also noted rising public opposition to Enbridge’s proposed project over concerns about oil spills that could plague pristine natural habitat on land and water — especially in light of recent accidents such as BP’s Gulf Coast well blow-out and an Enbridge crude oil pipeline rupture and leak into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

Editor’s note The Sun says Environmental Defence of Toronto filed the original Access To Information request.

First Nations “manipulated” by Americans on Enbridge: National Post columnist

National Post

Columnist Peter Foster

Northern Gateway is being ostensibly opposed by native groups. The question is how far those groups are being manipulated -and paid -by the green movement. Two weeks ago, aboriginal protestors ululated and banged on their drums outside the Enbridge annual meeting. They have also appeared at bank meetings, including that a few weeks ago of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. They are a permanent fixture at UN climate meetings…. 

And just how many informed natives do the protestors represent? One loud group, the Yinka Dene Alliance, has asserted its unyielding opposition to Northern Gateway, no matter how much training, and how many benefits and jobs, are provided to often desperately poor native communities. However, some observers suggest that the alliance represents only 150 people. According to Enbridge, some support the line, although the company is reluctant to identify them because it doesn’t want to stir potential conflict. This reflects the usual situation in which project proponents find themselves silenced while opponents are free to conspicuously drum their moral outrage….

The case for co-operation Why Shawn Atleo and Pat Daniel should have lunch: Alberta Oil

Alberta Oil

The case for co-operation Why Shawn Atleo and Pat Daniel should have lunch

A great, though as-yet untapped, ally in the quest to deliver Alberta crude to the Far East could be Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, who in the same Globe piece lamented the glacial pace of treaty negotiations and the resulting impact on industrial development. “What we have is the potential for perpetual and repeated conflict,” Chief Atleo told the paper. “That doesn’t do anyone any good. It has an adverse impact on not only relationships but overall the economy.”

Editors Note: This online column in Alberta Oil magazine by Jeff Lewis, is based on an interview with Enbridge Northern Gateway CEO  John Carruthers,with this quote

Carruthers, the company’s Gateway chief, reiterates the nation-building argument in the June edition of Alberta Oil. “Accessing alternative, large and growing markets provides critical value for Canadians…”

The Carruthers interview is not available online at this time,

Enbridge defends Northern Gateway pipeline

National Post

Enbridge defends Northern Gateway pipeline

Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. defended its controversial Northern
Gateway oil pipeline Wednesday as an important “game changer” for
Canada’s economy that has been wrongly portrayed in an alarmist,
inaccurate and unbalanced way.

In a Calgary speech, Stephen Wuori, president of Enbridge’s liquids
pipeline unit, urged the audience to help balance the discussion about
energy and energy development by taking critics to task on rumour,
misinformation and myth.

“When we read a newspaper story that gives credence and airtime to
unfounded anti-business, anti- development rhetoric, let’s call the
reporter, write a letter to the editor,” he said in his speech.

First Nations stand ground

Financial Post

First Nations stand ground

In case their unequivocal message hasn’t been received, British Columbia’s First Nations are in Calgary this week to make it clear to the board of directors of Enbridge Inc., Enbridge’s annual meeting of shareholders and members of the broader oil community that the proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline is not going forward. 

It will be a difficult message to accept. The pipeline between the oil sands in Alberta and Kitimat on the northern coast of B.C. is a big plank in the oil-and-gas industry’s strategy to develop a new market for its products in Asia, a major part of Enbridge’s growth strategy, a key piece of strategic infrastructure for all of Canada, and a major job creator for Western Canada.