CALGARY – After nearly two years, the National Energy Board’s review of the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project is now in its final phase.
An NEB panel began hearing final oral arguments in Calgary Tuesday.
If approved, that project would see the existing pipeline from Alberta to the west coast twinned – tripling capacity to nearly 900,000 barrels a day.
The cost of the proposed expansion is $6.8 billion.
As the hearing began, environmentalists opposed to both the project and the review process protested outside of the NEB offices in Calgary.
“The point of this is to tell the federal government that despite the changes they’ve made, the pipeline approval process is still broken,” Matt Hammer of Calgary Climate Action Network said.
“It doesn’t go far enough to consider First Nations issues, it doesn’t go far enough to consider climate change, and we need to invest in renewables – not double down on the fossil fuel economy of the past.”
The NEB has until May 20 to submit its recommendation, including any conditions that Kinder Morgan would have to meet.
Since April 2014, it has received more than 1,300 comments, as well as submissions from 400 intervenors.
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