Northern Gateway | Northwest Coast Energy News

First nations seek fresh start with Enbridge over pipeline to coast: Globe and Mail

Energy Environment Politics

Carrie Tait writing in the Globe and Mail in First nations seek fresh start with Enbridge over pipeline to coast

First nations groups protesting against Enbridge Inc.’s controversial pipeline to the B.C. coast will reconsider their opposition to the project if its regulatory approval process is put on hold.

The Coastal First Nations in a September meeting told Pat Daniel, Enbridge’s chief executive, they want the Joint Review Panel (JRP) to delay hearings on the company’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline so negotiations between the two sides can resume and a stronger relationship can be built….

The Coastal First Nations say it is not to late for Enbridge to win them over on the Gateway plan.

“If we could have a fresh start and were able build a good relationship, the Coastal First Nations might be willing to take another look at the project,” Art Sterritt, the group’s executive director, said in an interview. “That wouldn’t mean we would necessarily come out and agree with it, but we would certainly take a closer look at it.”

Monaghan re-elected Kitimat mayor, anti-pipeline rival Halyk well back

Politics

Updated with official results
Joanne Monaghan has been re-elected at mayor of Kitimat. Her chief rival, Councillor Randy Halyk was far behind.

During the campaign, Halyk announced his opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Mongahan maintained her official position of neutrality on the pipeline, although there were repeated allegations during the campaign that she supports the pipeline. Monaghan has been vocal in her support of other projects like liquified natural gas and the modernization of the Rio Tinto Alcan plant.

Official results

Joanne Monaghan 1356
Randy Halyk 619
Jim Thom 304
Danny Nunes 85

There will be a couple of new faces on District of Kitimat Council, with newcomer Edwin Empinado gaining the most votes at 1403, followed by Mario Feldhoff, 1320, Phil Germuth, 1294, Mary Murphy, 1247, Rob Goffinet, 1167, and Corrine Scott, 1099.

Voter turnout in Kitimat was 55 per cent.

Although incumbents were generally acclaimed or returned across the northwest, in Smithers, Taylor Bachrach, who has voiced opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline was elected mayor, defeating incumbent Cress Farrow. Bachrach promised a more collaborative style of leadership (an issue also in the Kitimat election. Bachrach also supports the Wet’suwet’en First Nation;s opposition to the pipeline. At least four of the successful Smithers council candidates also oppose the pipeline.

In Terrace, mayor Dave Pernarowski was re-elected and he too has voiced opposition to the Northern Gateway as do most of the Terrace council.

Editorial: Any one who believes the Northern Gateway can be fast tracked is out of touch with reality

Editorial

In the past few days there has been a lot of comment from politicians, pundits, columnists and business analysts about “fast tracking” the Northern Gateway pipeline project now that the United States has postponed approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

If anyone wanted proof that these people are completely out of touch with reality, the past three days has proven it beyond any reasonable doubt–and it has absolutely nothing to do with politics.

For the purposes of this editorial, let’s assume, just for the sake of argument, that there was no opposition, but one hundred per cent support for Enbridge’s project to build the pipeline from the Alberta bitumen sands to the port of Kitimat. Let’s assume that the Minister of Natural Resources, Joe Oliver, was successful, as he is quoted today, in expediting the approval process by the Northern Gateway Joint Review Process.

After all that, could the Northern Gateway be “fast tracked?”

No.

Let’s ignore, for this argument, any of the objections that the environmental movement has raised against the pipeline.

Let’s instead take one argument that Enbridge has used to promote the pipeline project, that the Northern Gateway is another “national dream,” the equivalent of building the Canadian transcontinental railway more than a century ago.

The problem with the majority of economists, as always, is that they think that they are dealing with a spreadsheet not the real world. Just move everything from the Keystone column to the Northern Gateway column. The bitumen goes to China instead of Texas, and the money rolls in.

The problem with cabinet ministers like Joe Oliver and Jim Flaherty, proponents of fast tracking the pipeline, is that either they are not getting the proper briefing notes or they are ignoring those briefing notes. (That is scary when it comes to Flaherty since he is supposed to be guiding the Canadian economy).

As noted earlier, the business columnists and analysts don’t even bother to read the technical studies posted by Enbridge on the Northern Gateway Joint Review site.

The bitumen pipeline is planned to cross 1,172 kilometres of challenging terrain from the bitumen sands to Kitimat. The parallel condensate pipeline is planned to cover 1,172 kilometres from Kitimat to the bitumen sands
.
Why does Enbridge call the pipelines the equivalent of the great railway construction of the nineteenth century?

The pipelines will have to cross some of the most rugged territory on this planet; mountain ranges, including the Rocky Mountains, The Bulkley Ranges, the Coast Ranges.

Even the valleys and plateaus the pipeline must cross are considered geologically unstable.

The weather is often terrible. Rain. Snow. More rain. Wind storms. Lots and lots of rain. The pipeline will come to close to Lakelse Lake, just east of Kitimat, that has a Canadian record for a one day snowfall, 118 centimetres.

Just ask DriveBC how difficult it is to maintain the highways in this region, highways that have been around for at least 60 years and where the engineering has improved over those decades from the tracks my family drove when I was a kid. Washouts happen, even in “mild” years.

Then there’s the possibility of earthquakes. As Enbridge, correctly, points out, the tectonic plates where the major quakes can be triggered are far off shore and at least according to the maps, the pipeline is not in a quake zone. Yet Kitimat was badly shaken by the magnitude 9.2 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Anchorage, thousands of kilometres away.

So terrain, weather (summer or winter) and even earthquakes could hold up construction.

The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was held up, not just by the challenging terrain but by the Northwest Rebellion, financial mismanagement by the CPR, (they ran out of money) and political scandal. That was in the nineteenth century when health and safety regulations were non existent and no environmental precautions were required.

Some of the first locomotives and rolling stock were not built for crossing some of the biggest mountain ranges on Earth.

Yes the CPR was built. It didn’t come in on time and on budget. The CPR certainly wasn’t “fast tracked.”

In the end one has to wonder if any of the politicians, pundits, columnists and analysts who are so certain they can fast track the Northern Gateway pipeline have attempted a home renovation. Perhaps they should try to finish their basements before pronouncing on building a pipeline fast tracked across the west.

New headquarters for National Energy Board is Shanghai, newspaper says

Energy Politics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that moving Canadian oil (really unrefined bitumen from the bitumen sands) from Alberta to China is a priority for his government.

Now, according to the local Black Press giveaway weekly, the Northern Connector, it appears that the Prime Minister has already taken the first step by moving the headquarters of the National Energy Board from Calgary to Shanghai.

Here is the story that appeared in the Nov. 11 edition of the Northern Connector.

Actually, of course, the NEB remains in Calgary and will be holding hearings across the north in early 2012.

Harper says oil to Asia “important priority,” Oliver wants to expedite Gateway Joint Review process

Energy Politics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told reporters at the APEC summit in Hawaii that pushing Canadian energy products to Asia are an “important priority” for his government given the postponement of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Reuters reports from Honolulu:

“This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure
that we are able to access Asia markets for our energy
products,” Harper told reporters on the sidelines of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

“That will be an important priority of our government going
forward and I indicated that yesterday to the president of
China.”

A couple of hours earlier, the industry newsletter Platts quoted Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver as saying he wanted the Northern Gateway pipeline approval process expedited and limited to just one year.

Platts quoting a CBC interview (the quote, at this point is not on the CBC website story about Oliver) says:

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said November 13 he wants a regulatory decision by early 2013, a year ahead of the current schedule, on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project to expedite the shipment of Alberta oil sands crude to Asia….

“The Chinese are ready to buy,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “The issue is building the infrastructure to get our resources to China.”

To that end, Oliver said he now expects Northern Gateway’s hearings to be completed within a year of starting in January 2012.

While insisting that he will not interfere in the Northern Gateway process, Oliver said it is a “fundamental strategic objective” of the Canadian government to diversify its customer base for oil beyond the United States.

Oliver apparently made his statement before Stephen Harper was scheduled to meet with US President Barack Obama.

Keystone XL decision – more questions than answers: Blog

A blog by Edmonton based, University of Alberta business professor Andrew Leach, Keystone XL decision – more questions than answers, analyzes the Keystone postponement through the rose coloured glasses we see often from Alberta (referring, of course, to the provincial flower, not the political party) and is more intelligent than what we’ve seen from the business press across Canada.

Interestingly Leach says:

It took exactly 3 minutes after I first heard the news for me to hear
someone say, “if they don’t want our oil, we’ll send it to China!”
Surprisingly, it took another 3 hours for me to hear someone make
reference to letting Americans freeze in the dark.

And later, Leach goes on to advise Albertans:

If Alberta wants to grow oilsands production beyond about 3 million barrels per day, we are going to need others to accept infrastructure in their backyards to get it to market. In the past, landowners along 1000s of miles of pipeline would have no easy way to come together and oppose the project – that has all changed and if you don’t believe me, ask the 4000 people who have signed up to intervene at the Northern Gateway Joint Review Panel hearings, or the 10000+ people who converged on the White House to oppose Keystone XL.

Editor’s Note: Leach was part of a wide ranging Twitter debate after the Keystone XL was postponed. A key article that sparked the debate was a piece in the New York Times by Michael Levi, that talked about NIMBYism in the Keystone case, A Shortsighted Victory in Delaying the Keystone Pipeline. That three minute record seems typical of the attitude on Twitter from many Albertans, who assume that the Northern Gateway pipeline will go ahead.

‘Keystone Cops’ crippling U.S. economy: National Post

Energy Politics

Diane Francis, writing in the National Post, in Keystone Cops’ crippling U.S. economy, a wide ranging piece attacking the decision to postpone the Keystone XL pipeline, makes her contempt for all the people of northern British Columbia pretty clear in her push to get the Northern Gateway pipeline going

The other priority is to fast-track the proposed pipeline through British Columbia to the West coast to ship oil to Asian markets. The aboriginal claims must be settled financially and generously as quickly as possible before the trans-national non-state players in the environmental movement organize them and stop the pipeline.

Editor’s note: Why do the business columnists across the Canadian media continue to believe that the people of northern British Columbia, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, are so stupid and helpless that they are under the thumb of the so-called “trans-national non-state players in the environmental movement” rather than local residents concerned about the environment where the live, work and play?? (Sounds like an editorial, which will be forthcoming)

Flaherty talks tough with U.S. in wake of Keystone pipeline delay : reports

Energy Politics

Finance minister Jim Flaherty is “talking tough” according to the Globe and Mail’s Steven Chase and threatening the Americans with the Northern Gateway pipeline in the wake of the postponement of the Keystone XL project.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty [is] warning the postponement could kill the project and accelerate this country’s efforts to ship oil to Asia instead.

“The decision to delay it that long is actually quite a crucial decision. I’m not sure this project would survive that kind of delay,” Mr. Flaherty told Bloomberg News. “It may mean that we may have to move quickly to ensure that we can export our oil to Asia through British Columbia.”

The original Bloomberg article also reports:

Flaherty, 61, will travel later this week to Beijing, where he will discuss increasing energy exports to China and facilitating investment in Canadian natural-resource assets. Enbridge Inc. (ENB) has proposed building a pipeline, called Northern Gateway, that would transport crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Canada’s Pacific coast, while Kinder Morgan Inc. plans to expand its Trans Mountain route to do the same.

Keystone decision means Enbridge must account for climate affect of Northern Gateway, environmental group tells Joint Review Panel

Environment Energy

A coalition of environmental groups led by ForestEthics says the fact the US State Department included climate change in its decision to reassess the Keystone XL pipeline means that Enbridge just do the same for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat.

Even before the Keystone decision, the environmentalists filed a motion with the Northern Gateway Joint Review that would compel the panel to consider the up-stream impacts of tar sands from the Northern Gateway pipeline, as well as climate change impacts.

The groups say they filed the motion with the Joint Review panel on October 10 and have not yet received a response, even though, according to the group, the NGJR panel should respond within seven days.

A news release from ForestEthics says:

The State Department and the Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline sends a clear signal to Canadian decision makers,” says Nikki Skuce, Senior Energy campaigner with ForestEthics. “In the context of the climate change threat, credible pipeline review includes climate impacts…”

The Keystone decision came down to the concerns of thousands of American citizens,” said Jennifer Rice, Chair of The Friends of Wild Salmon. “Citizen concern is just as strong in Canada. We’ve had a record-breaking 4000 citizens sign-up to speak on the Gateway pipeline, and we hope Stephen Harper learns something from President Obama’s listening skills.”

ForestEthics spokesman Nikki Skuce said:

The Joint Review Panel has been reluctant to consider climate change and tar sands impacts in their assessment of Northern Gateway, yet Enbridge argues the need for this pipeline based on tar sands expansion… [President Barack] Obama’s decision sets a new North American standard for credible pipeline review. We hope the federal government does the right thing for Canadians and the planet, by including climate and tar sands impacts in their review process.

Pembina urges Harper to follow US “objective perspective” of Keystone in looking at Northern Gateway

Energy Environment

The Pembina Institute, the Alberta based environmental and energy think tank has reacted to the decision by the United States Department of State to delay approval of the Keystone XL bitumen pipeline by urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper to under take a similar “objective perspective” on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from the Alberta bitumen sands to Kitimat.

In a news release, Pembina spokesman Dan Woynillowicz said that US President Barack Obama “has made it clear that he has heard the concerns of Americans about environmental protection, climate change, and the need for the United States to create a clean energy future.”

The State Department release on the decision did include “climate change,” which Pembina interprets as, “The fact that climate change will be explicitly considered in the final decision is notable given the higher greenhouse gas pollution associated with oilsands compared to other sources of oil.”

Woynillowicz said the US decision shows that the regulatory process should be ” based on the best available information and analysis, and will take into account the views and concerns of American citizens.”

He then goes on to say:

“This decision stands in stark contrast with the Canadian government’s approach to the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline that would transport oil sands product to the West Coast. Rather than maintaining an objective perspective on this pipeline, Prime Minister Harper and his cabinet have been actively promoting its approval before public hearings on the environmental impacts of the project have even begun.

“The Canadian government should take a lesson from the U.S. and ensure a broader and more rigorous review of Gateway is completed, including the upstream environmental and greenhouse gas impacts of expanding oilsands development to fill the pipeline.”