NEB to restart Energy East pipeline process
• A decision by Canada’s energy regulator on Friday could cause delays for TransCanada Corp.’ s Energy East pipeline, just after another major proposal by the company — Keystone XL — was swiftly revived earlier this week.
In a press release, the National Energy Board said it would restart the hearings process for Energy East “from the beginning,” a move that is likely to delay the eventual startup date for the $15.7 billion pipeline.
The NEB said the new Energy East panel overseeing the process has “voided all decisions made by the previous Hearing Panel,” and that those decisions would be “removed from the official hearing record.”
The decision could pose significant delays to the Energy East proposal. It requires the panel to host a new round of public hearings on the project, and will require participants in those public hearings to resubmit their arguments.
It also reverses an earlier determination that the applications for both the Energy East and Eastern Mainline proposals are complete.
TransCanada said it was still determining what the decision means for the expected completion date of the project. The estimated in-service date is currently around 2020.
“We will review the National Energy Board’s decision to understand its impact on TransCanada and the project,” TransCanada spokesperson Tim Duboyce said in a written statement.
The Energy East hearings process was marred in controversy following a report by media outlet National Observer that found former Quebec premier Jean Charest had met privately with some NEB members while working as a lobbyist for TransCanada. Soon after, all three panellists tasked with assessing the Energy East proposal stepped down.
The NEB maintained that, as part of the hearings process, it is common to meet with stakeholders on all sides of the pipeline debate, including industry lobbyists. The recused panel members said the decision was based on “perception” and not any belief that there was wrongdoing.
In a statement on Friday, activist group Environmental Defence said it was the “right move” to begin hearings from scratch.
A restarting of Energy East hearings comes just one day after TransCanada announced it had filed its presidential permit application for its Keystone XL pipeline.
Keystone XL was widely believed to be a dead- end proposal for TransCanada after then-U.S. president Barack Obama rejected the company’s proposal in November 2015.
However, in his first week in office, U. S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order invited TransCanada to re-submit its application.
The swift revival of Keystone XL is framed by a rapid shift in the Canadian pipeline debate.
In late 2016 prime minister Justin Trudeau approved both Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement project and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion. Keystone XL would add a further outlet for Alberta’s landlocked crude.
Now the discussion has moved from whether industry can build the export capacity it needs to whether it will actually need a slew of new pipelines in coming years.
Oilsands production over the next five years is estimated to grow by between 800,000 bpd and one million bpd.