Conservatives continue to soften tone on Northern Gateway pipeline

OTTAWA—The federal government expressed concerns Thursday about the safety record of oil pipelines as the Harper Conservatives continued to soften their once gung-ho attitude toward building a pipeline through northern British Columbia.

“There have been some recent spills and as a government we’re not happy with that,” Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver told CBC-TV.

He seemed to be referring to two recent oil spills from Enbridge pipelines. In one, a pipeline leaked about 1,200 barrels of crude oil into a rural Wisconsin field last month. In another, 840,000 gallons of oil spilled into a river in Michigan in an incident that led a U.S. official to liken Enbridge’s containment efforts to the “Keystone Kops.”

Environmentalists say the incidents sparked a large increase in political opposition to Enbridge’s proposed $6-billion Northern Gateway pipeline to carry crude from Alberta’s oilsands to the B.C. coast for shipment via supertankers.

Oliver pointed out that pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and natural gas. But he said avoiding spills has to be “absolutely a critical objective and it’s very important the industry agree” with that objective. Oliver added that he believes the industry does agree and is taking steps to improve pipeline safety.

It’s part of new political tack by the federal Conservatives, who until recently lauded the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline as a national priority that needed to be built as quickly as possible to open Asian markets to petroleum from the oilsands.

But with polls showing a majority of B.C. residents opposed to Northern Gateway, the Harper government has adjusted its approach. Last week Heritage Minister James Moore punctured the federal Conservatives’ pro-Enbridge stance by questioning the company’s ability to convince the public that Northern Gateway would be safe. And on Tuesday Harper for the first time sounded a cautious note, suggesting the pipeline would not be built unless it is approved in an independent review by the National Energy Board, which is currently holding public hearings on the project.

Enbridge is promising to spend an extra $500 million to improve pipeline safety.

But in Ottawa Thursday, an industry official said widespread concern about high-profile ruptures of Canadian pipelines shows the industry has not done a good enough job of demonstrating how safe it really is.

Brenda Kenny, president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, said her members must do more to assure Canadians that the industry has a safe record and is trying to eliminate what she said is an already small number of serious spills.

“I think every company recognizes that there are some very important questions being asked and we need to be a lot more transparent,” she told a news conference.

“I would fully acknowledge that as a sector, we’re coming to this late in terms of going public with the programs we have under way . . . we should have been more communicative earlier.”

Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Les Whittington