Oil tanker moratorium won’t deter proponents of Northern Gateway

Alberta’s Energy Minister says she will push for new pipelines to help her province’s landlocked oil industry but distanced her government from the controversial Northern Gateway project as news came that the federal government will formalize a ban on oil tanker traffic off B.C.’s Northern Coast.

The moratorium would stand in the way of the $8 billion Northern Gateway pipeline and oil terminus project, approved (with major conditions) under Trudeau’s predecessor Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

He added that Canadian oil producers are forced to accept a steep discount for the crude they produce, which they can only sell to American refineries because of the lack of export pipelines.

Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued fossil fuel-related directives to his cabinet ministers last Friday that included instructions to end oil tanker movements on British Columbia’s northern coast.

“A legislated oil tanker ban will send a strong message of positive change to all British Columbians, while rebuilding the trust that has been lost over nearly a decade in the battle over Northern Gateway”, said Caitlyn Vernon, campaigns director at Sierra Club BC.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is sworn into office, November 4, 2015. His government will turn back the clock more than 40 years and bring back a moratorium on west coast crude oil tanker traffic. “The next step is for Minister Garneau to enshrine the tanker ban in law so the coast and the people that depend on it will be protected in perpetuity”, Gouglas said.

“Northern Gateway and the project proponents, including aboriginal equity partners, remain committed to this essential Canadian infrastructure”, the statement reads.

“The new government has supported several versions of a tanker ban bill which would have amended the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 to prohibit the operation of oil tankers in Hecate Strait, Queen Charlotte Sound and Dixon Entrance”. “While those previous bills did not pass, the necessary legal avenues clearly exist to swiftly legislate an oil tanker ban when Parliament reopens, bringing binding legal protection to this area”.

Environmental groups immediately called the moratorium a death-blow to the pipeline’s prospects.

In her speech, she said Alberta supports Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain expansion, which would almost triple to 890,000 bpd deliveries of oil from Edmonton to the B.C. Lower Mainland, as well as Energy East, a TransCanada project to ship 1.1 million bpd of Alberta crude into Eastern Canada.

Northern Gateway has also successfully completed an extensive navigation review under the Transport Canada TERMPOL review process, he said.