Critics were quick to condemn The National Energy Board's recommendation that the federal government approve Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline expansion last week - so quick, in fact, that some disparaged the review before the regulatory body had released it.
Weighing in at 533 pages, the NEB report was nearly three years in the making, having heard the concerns of 400 interveners, 35 indigenous groups and 1,250 other groups or individuals who submitted letters of comment. Far from a rubber stamp, the recommendation is a tentative one, subject to 157 conditions in a range of areas such as engineering, safety, finances and consultation, including certain requirements that continue for the duration of the lifespan of the pipeline.
Despite the report's girth, comprehensiveness and complexity, media email inboxes were flooded within seconds of its release by outraged commentary from the Green party, the Georgia Strait Alliance, David Suzuki, the Wilderness Committee, the Dogwood Initiative, Sierra Club BC, the NDP, Stand Earth (formerly ForestEthics), and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust Initiative, the latter - which has launched legal action in Federal Court - claiming it has veto rights over the project.
The B.C. government also has withheld its approval of the painstakingly reviewed pipeline project while proceeding full steam ahead with the Site C dam absent any assessment by the B.C. Utilities Commission.
The NEB review did not mince words about the risks of the project. Increased tanker traffic in B.C. waterways will affect marine life, particularly Southern resident killer whales; a significant spill on land or water would have serious effects; land use may be restricted during construction and greenhouse gas emissions from marine vessels would be significant.
But it determined that benefits, such as market diversification, employment, direct spending on pipeline materials, government revenues and community benefits programs outweighed the risks.
The federal government has appointed a three-person panel to conduct yet another review of the project but it can hardly be expected to match the scale and scope of the NEB's work. It seems a cosmetic salve to distance itself from the NEB review launched under the Conservatives.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government should consider that many opponents of the Trans Mountain pipeline reject any pipeline, indeed, any development of fossil-fuel related energy projects or infrastructure. A decision, due in December, will be a major test of his government's intentions to act for the common good or to bow to the extreme demands of special interest groups.
-- Vancouver Sun
