Kinder Morgan asks opponents of Trans Mountain expansion to be ‘respectful’

Anderson said in a conference call with reporters that Kinder Morgan is “fully and acutely” aware that people have threatened to oppose the $6.8-billion project “at all costs”. “That’s what we’re doing and that’s the case I’ll make”.

Nov 30 The Canadian government is close to meeting conditions British Columbia has laid out for provincial support of Kinder Morgan Inc’s proposal to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline, the province’s premier Christy Clark said on Wednesday.

“They wrote a lot of cheques in the campaign previous year, on climate, on consultation with First Nations people, and none of those things are happening”.

Trans Mountain still has to clear regulatory hurdles and faces stiff opposition in B.C. from environmentalists, First Nations and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. “That being said, we have been preparing by lining up resources to ensure we are able to initiate construction in a timely fashion”, Nogier said.

Kinder Morgan’s $5.06 billion project would almost triple capacity on the artery to 890,000 barrels a day.

It has the potential to dramatically increase the amount of oil tankers passing through the Puget Sound area.

The report refers to the measures the National Energy Board and the federal government took to seek indigenous input and change the project’s conditions. More than 50 conditions are related to the environment and 53 involve engineering and safety.

University of Saskatchewan law professor Dwight Newman said he couldn’t rule out First Nation legal action stopping the project, or the possibility of a successful injunction, but it was unlikely.

She made the comments a day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal cabinet had approved Kinder Morgan Canada’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. However, Clark indicated Wednesday that this condition was among those that had already been met.

Heyman said B.C.’s assessment is only taking place because of a court decision that it’s required to address aboriginal consultation requirements, adding the province’s equivalency agreement with Ottawa means B.C. accepts the federal NEB review in all other respects.

In terms of environmental progress, she said “we can’t do it by throwing people to the curb and embracing a jobless transition”.

But at the same time, the B.C. backbenchers made a distinction between their own roles in defending the interests of their constituents and the prime minister’s duty to make decisions in the national interest.

In 2013, she said she had agreed with the Alberta government that none of Alberta’s royalties from oil pipelines would go to B.C.

Clark says her government also wants assurances on jobs and the economic benefits for B.C.

Trudeau’s announcement, welcomed by the government of Alberta and representatives of the oil and gas industry, sparked a protest of hundreds in downtown Vancouver Tuesday night and an outpouring of criticism from B.C. opposition parties, municipal leaders, environmental organizations and several First Nations groups, including the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.