NEB rejects pipeline review
The National Energy Board will not be reviewing the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, saying Friday that it does not fall within its jurisdiction.
The $6.2-billion project, currently under construction, is to carry natural gas 670 kilometres from the Groundbirch area of the B.C. Peace to LNG Canada’s $40-billion export terminal currently under construction near Kitimat.
The NEB’s decision comes after hearings on an application, submitted a year ago, from environmentalist Mike Sawyer, who argued approval from B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office is not good enough.
He noted TransCanada Corp., now known at TC Energy, owns both CGL and NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. system, which gathers and transports natural gas in Alberta and northeastern B.C., and contended that they’re functionally integrated and so, comprise an interprovincial system.
But in a statement, the NEB said the project does not form a part of a system and is not vital or integral to it or any other federally regulated pipeline.
“Based on the evidence presented, the NEB found that the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project is properly regulated by the province of British Columbia,” the agency said.
Had the NEB agreed with Sawyer, the project would have been put on hold while it went through a review by the regulator.
The NEB’s hearing on the matter involved 13 participants and included the filing of evidence, and both written and oral arguments. CGL welcomed the decision.
“This is a single-line natural gas pipeline located entirely within B.C. Its only purpose is transport of natural gas within the province – from the Dawson Creek area to LNG Canada’s facility in Kitimat,” CGL said in a statement.
One other legal challenge remains in play. CGL and the Wet’suwet’en hereditary clan chiefs are at odds over whether the pipeline should pass through the First Nation’s traditional territory.
They are awaiting a B.C. Supreme Court decision on whether an injunction against blockading the project should be lifted or put in place for the duration of construction after making submissions at the Prince George courthouse in June.
CGL has emphasized that it has reached benefit agreements amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars with 20 elected bands along the project route including those of the Wet’suwet’en.
However, the Wet’suwet’en hereditary clan chiefs are strongly opposed, saying they did not give permission for it to be built. They also say the elected bands’ authority ends at the borders of their respective reserves while they have authority over the Wet’suwet’en’s entire traditional territory.