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If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of desperation in the voice of Alberta Premier Jim Prentice when he talks about the Energy East pipeline. One doesn’t have to concentrate quite as hard to detect the same anxiety in the words of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
Both were taken aback when Ontario and Quebec announced seven conditions for granting approval to the pipeline. One of those includes an assessment of the project’s upstream greenhouse gas emissions – which would appear to take into account the source of the crude moving through the pipeline. In Alberta’s case, that would be the oil sands, a high GHG emitter.
The conditions are similar to ones the B.C. government set out for pipeline projects, including a requirement to consult with First Nations. And we all know how that’s been going for pipeline companies trying to reach tidewater on the West Coast.
Despite conditional approval from the National Energy Board, most believe the Northern Gateway pipeline will never get built because of opposition to it. The courts have given First Nations new powers to fight developments that encroach on their land. Outside of aboriginal communities, public opinion regarding pipelines is at best divided – although there seems to be a growing societal angst about climate change that is palpable.
Kinder Morgan, which also wants to add a pipeline to the West Coast, is encountering that sentiment now. Protests at Burnaby Mountain, where the company is trying to do some exploratory work, have become daily events and have spawned arrests and ugly international headlines. Once upon a time, the odds of the Kinder Morgan pipeline going ahead were considered extremely good. Not any more.
Mr. Prentice knows this. So does Mr. Wall. That leaves Energy East as the most viable immediate option to get landlocked Canadian oil to overseas markets.
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