Canada again approves expansion of pipeline

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has again approved the contentious Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would nearly triple the flow of oil from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast.

The approval Tuesday came 10 months after the Federal Court of Appeal halted the project and ordered Canada’s National Energy Board to redo its review of the pipeline, saying the original study was flawed and lacked adequate consultations with indigenous groups.

Trudeau’s government first approved it in 2016. Determined to see it built, the government bought the pipeline.

The pipeline expansion would triple the capacity of an existing line to ship oil extracted from the oil sands in Alberta across the snowcapped peaks of the Canadian Rockies. It would end at a terminal outside Vancouver, British Columbia, resulting in a sevenfold increase in the number of tankers in the shared waters between Canada and Washington state.

The expansion is projected to cause tanker traffic to rise from about 60 to more than 400 vessels annually as the pipeline flow increases from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day.

Trudeau said he expects shovels in the ground this summer, but the expansion faces stiff environmental opposition from the British Columbia government and from activists.

The pipeline would allow Canada to diversify oil markets and vastly increase exports to Asia, where it could command a higher price. Canada has the world’s third-largest oil reserves, but 99 percent of its exports now go to refiners in the U.S.

“It’s really simple. Right now, we basically have one customer for our energy resources, the United States. As we’ve seen over the past few years, anything can happen with our neighbors to the south,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said every dollar Canada earns from the project will be invested in clean energy. The court said the government needed to be better, Trudeau noted. “And you know what?” he said. “They were right.”

His government ordered the National Energy Board to look at the expansion’s effects on marine shipping, and there was another round of consultations with indigenous communities affected by the project.

Trudeau’s decision is a blow for indigenous leaders and environmentalists, who have pledged to do whatever is necessary to thwart the pipeline, including chaining themselves to construction equipment.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is also an opponent of the project.

Many indigenous people see the 620 miles of new pipeline as a threat to their lands, echoing concerns raised by American Indians about the Keystone XL project in the U.S. Many in Canada say the project also raises broader environmental concerns by enabling increased development of the carbon-heavy oil sands.