Tensions over Enbridge continue with premiers
Posted October 1, 2012 5:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY, AB. (NEWS1130) – BC Premier Christy Clark called the quick meeting between her and Alberta Premier Alison Redford “frosty.”
Neither woman was willing to budge on how they think the risks nor benefits of the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project will affect their respective provinces. “I wouldn’t say we made a whole lot of progress on it,” says Clark.
Our premier wanted to; once again, reiterate the five conditions under which the government would allow Enbridge’s gateway project and the expansion to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline to deliver crude from Alberta to the West Coast for export to Asia.
Most of Clark’s conditions have to do with the environment. “There are five conditions that British Columbia has set for the Enbridge pipeline to go through. Four of them are not about money and, in fact, the top three are about the environment. So, I wanted her to understand that. You cannot put a price on our environment, you can’t put a price on our coastline,” adds Clark.
BC also wants the project to meet aboriginal treaty rights, but the most contentious condition so far has been the demand for an equal share of fiscal and economic benefits from the pipeline. “No matter what any kind of financial deal could look like, if the other four can’t be met, the money won’t matter. It’s up to those who will benefit from this project to advocate for it and be champions for it.”
Clark wants governments of all levels to sit down and discuss the project.
“The equivalent amount of energy we will be exporting will equal the amount of oil that is produced in the oil sands every day. That’s how big our reserves of natural gas are. We are going to build up to five pipelines across the north, we’ll be putting it on ships to Asia and that’s a pretty big set of fish to fry. The Enbridge pipeline; I know it’s very important to Alberta and I know it’s very important to the country, that’s what I wanted to talk to her about today.”
The Northern Gateway Pipeline project would ship roughly 550,000 barrels of bitumen per day from Alberta through to a port in Kitimat. A regulatory panel is currently looking over the $6 billion proposal.
Trans Mountain, a $4.1 billion proposal by Kinder Morgan, would expand an existing pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver. It would increase tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet, which many critics say also increases the chances of a massive oil spill.
No word when or if the two premiers will meet again.
