May 27 2010 » » Reuters
Enbridge files Gateway pipeline plan, fight looms
By Allan Dowd
- Enbridge says line can be operated safely
- Native group calls it “act of aggression” (Updates with opposition reaction, adds details)
VANCOUVER, May 27 (Reuters) – Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO). asked Canadian regulators on Thursday for permission to build its controversial Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific Coast.
The long-anticipated announcement sets the stage for a bitter battle with environmental and aboriginal groups who say the risk of a tanker accident along the rugged and picturesque British Columbia coast is too great.
“The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project will open important new markets for Canadian crude oil; it will create jobs and a substantial long-term boost to our nation’s economy as well as the communities through which it will pass,” Enbridge Chief Executive Patrick Daniel said in a statement.
The C$5.5 billion ($5.2 billion) project would move up to 525,000 barrels a day of oil from Alberta to the port of Kitimat, British Columbia, giving Asia direct access to Canada’s vast oil sands via tankers. The line would also be used to import condensate.
Enbridge has said it wants the Northern Gateway line in operation by 2016.
Opponents lashed out at the filing, with the spokesman for a British Columbia aboriginal group calling it “an act of aggression” and “arrogant”, given that it comes while crews are still fighting the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“This means all out war,” said Art Sterritt, a spokesman for the Coastal First Nations.
Opponents released a poll on Wednesday saying 80 percent of British Columbians would oppose increased tanker traffic along the coast, which has been restricted on a voluntary basis since the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
Enbridge said the eight-volume regulatory application it filed with the National Energy Board will demonstrate that the 1,172 km (760 mile) line and tanker traffic can be operated safely.
“Construction and operation of the Northern Gateway pipeline system and marine terminal will be a model of world-class safety and environmental standards,” Daniel said in a news release.
Enbridge says that fears of a disaster are unfounded, because Kitimat, a small industrial and forestry community, has been visited safely by more than 1,500 ships carrying petrochemical products over the past 25 years..
Modern tankers are built to withstand accidents such as the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, which helped prompt restrictions on offshore energy development on Canada’s West Coast, the company and pipeline supporters say.
Legal observers have said the BP Plc (BP.L) spill in the Gulf of Mexico could strengthen any aboriginal claims and that native groups’ concerns about the environmental impact of a spill must be addressed before the line is built.
Sterritt said compensation for territorial rights lost if the pipeline is built may not be possible because the cultures of some native Indian communities would be wiped out in the event of a major tanker accident and oil spill.
The Northern Gateway Alliance, a coalition of businesses and residents who support the project, welcomed Enbridge’s announcement and said the line would bring needed economic development to the region.
