Kinder Morgan is making its first public comments since Sunday’s surprise announcement that it was suspending all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
Richard Kinder, the executive chairman of Kinder Morgan, said suspending the project was “the correct and appropriate economic decision for shareholders.”
A release on Sunday said that the company will “not commit additional shareholder resources” to the project in light of “continued actions in opposition to the project” by B.C.’s provincial government.
Kinder Morgan said it would consult with stakeholders with a view to reaching agreements by May 31 that “may allow the project to proceed.”
READ MORE: Kinder Morgan pipeline protests a legacy of dismissing environmental worries: Trudeau
Speaking on Monday, CEO Steve Kean says “over five years we still don’t have the clarity that we need. B.C. opposes the project consistently with actions and not merely words.”
“You can’t move seasons in Canada, seasons for construction, timing of materials, tree clearing etc.”
Keans adds that this is not a normal course of business.
“What we have is a government that is openly in opposition and has reaffirmed that opposition very recently. It’s outside of our control. It needs to come at the federal level or at the provincial level.”
Kean says if that clarity doesn’t come by June 1, the company will evaluate a write-off.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, B.C. Premier John Horgan said he spoke with both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and KML president Ian Anderson.
“Mr. Anderson told me he believes that the project Kinder Morgan has been undertaking has been unnecessarily harassed by British Columbia, and I told him that I disagreed,” Horgan said.
“We were consistent from the time the campaign started until it completed, right up to this day, that our job, we believe, of the government of British Columbia is to defend our water, our lands and, most importantly, our coast.”
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