News
Nov 16, 2011
First nations’ opposition is largest obstacle in the path of the Keystone pipeline project
Keystone delay ramps up federal support for Northern Gateway
BY GORDON HAMILTON, VANCOUVER SUN
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s vow to step up efforts to sell Canadian oil to Asia following the Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline has placed British Columbia at ground zero in the battle over Alberta oil sands bitumen.
Enbridge’s $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline proposal across northern B.C. from Alberta to Kitimat is the next alternative for developing a market for the oil sands and for promoting a Canadian strategy of diversifying away from the U.S. marketplace.
But Northern Gateway is opposed by at least 50 first nations along the pipeline corridor and on the B.C. coast, and it is also the next target for the North American environmental movement that so successfully delayed the Keystone pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
“We see it as a very highrisk and high-profile project,” Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, of Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview.
She said NRDC, which was one of the lead environmental groups in the fight over the Keystone pipeline, has already decided to make Northern Gateway the focus of its next big campaign.
“We did an alert to our members just two weeks ago and almost 60,000 NRDC members and supporters sent 60,000 emails to Premier [Christy] Clark asking that she take a strong stand against the Northern Gateway pipeline.”
Harper made the pledge to step up efforts to supply Asia with Canadian energy at the conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit Sunday in Hawaii.
The pipeline poses a tough dilemma for British Columbia, said Central One credit union economist Helmut Pastrick.
The economic benefits are broad but the risks of a damaging spill are high.
“It’s something that governments and our citizens are going to have to grapple with,” he said in an interview.
“The markets and the Asian economies are quite attractive for now and well into the future,” he said. “But obviously there is no such thing as a completely safe pipeline, or even port. Accidents do happen and will happen.”
Enbridge has been promoting the strategic argument for its Alberta-to-Kitimat pipeline to governments and to communities along the proposed pipeline route.
Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway said in an interview that the company is not surprised over Harper’s decision to adopt the diversification strategy.
“It’s always nice to have support,” Stanway said. “We have thought for quite a while that the strategic arguments in favour of Northern Gateway, in terms of market diversification, are very advantageous to Canada, advantageous to B.C., and advantageous to Alberta. I think those strategic arguments for Gateway are well understood by everybody, including governments.”
Despite opposition to Northern Gateway, the proposal is far from dead, said University of British Columbia resource policy professor George Hoberg. Federal support for Enbridge existed before the Keystone decision, he said.
“That support and pressure for it appears to be ramping up and I think that’s to be expected,” he said in an interview.
At stake for Alberta oilsands producers is a price differential between North American crude oil prices and world prices, which are higher. Keystone was to connect with the U.S. Gulf Coast, ending the insulation from international markets. The Northern Gateway is one of two Enbridge pipeline proposals – the other is in the U.S. – to end that insulation.
Hoberg said that benefits for B.C. of the Northern Gateway proposal would be “relatively minimal.”
“There would be some construction jobs in the short term,” he said. “There would be some long-term jobs at the facility in Kitimat, but there aren’t that many of them.
“But the risks to British Columbia are enormous, given the rivers that the pipeline will have to cross that are cherished salmon streams, and the tanker risk once they leave the port of Kitimat.”
Hoberg sees first nations opposition as the biggest obstacle to Northern Gateway.
“If the Coastal first nations continue to adamantly say no, how can the government of Canada accommodate that interest and still approve the pipeline? I think it’s a very difficult issue. If first nations can’t be brought onside, it’s going to be very difficult for this pipeline to go forward.”
First nations have already rejected an Enbridge offer of a 10-per-cent stake in the pipeline. Hoberg said the fact that first nations are supporting natural gas pipeline plans shows that the issue is not money; it’s the difference between harmful effects of an accident involving gas and one involving oil.
“The difference is that when an LNG facility fails, it can be explosive, but it does not result in the watercourse damage that oil would.”