[ad_1]
A new report from the Canada Energy Regulator predicts that if Canada tightens its climate policies to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions, neither the Trans Mountain expansion nor the new Keystone XL pipeline will be needed.
Environmental groups are hailing the report as evidence to support their long-held view that the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby, BC, should be halted immediately.
READ MORE: Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion On Schedule, In Budget: CEO
Cam Fenton, head of the Canadian team at 350.org (named for a “safe” level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) pointed out that the federal government regulator has twice recommended the government to approve the Trans Mountain expansion, but now is projecting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate actions could make the pipeline he bought redundant. “
“The new Canadian Energy Regulator report makes it clear that if Canada takes action on the climate crisis, even at a level far below what was promised in last week’s net zero legislation, both the Trans Mountain and Keystone XL pipelines are unnecessary.” said Fenton.
READ MORE: What Do Canada’s Zero Goals Mean for the Albertans?
Trudeau’s cabinet approved Trans Mountain first in 2016, then again in 2019. The second approval was sought after the Federal Court of Appeals ruled that Canada had not properly consulted indigenous communities or considered the impact it had. the pipeline would have had on marine life.
That second approval came more than a year after Ottawa stepped in to buy the existing Trans Mountain pipeline from Kinder Morgan Canada for $ 4.4 billion. Kinder Morgan was about to cancel the project because political opposition was delaying construction. Trudeau has promised Canada will buy the existing pipeline, expand it, and then resell it to the private sector.
It is currently estimated that it will cost approximately $ 12.6 billion to expand the pipeline by building a near-parallel version that will nearly triple total capacity.
The Canada Energy Regulator’s annual Energy Futures report on Tuesday released Canada’s energy supply and production plans for the next 30 years. It is concluded that all three pipelines under construction will only be needed if no more climate policies are implemented after this year.
READ MORE: US Army Corps of Engineers Grants Line 3 Final Federal Permit
With some new environmental policies, such as an expansion of the carbon tax, the report predicts that crude oil production will continue to grow until 2039, but not enough to justify the need for more than just replacing Enbridge Line 3. , from Alberta to Wisconsin, which is almost done.
This means that neither Trans Mountain nor the Keystone XL project would be needed.
Tom Gunton, a professor of resources and environmental planning at Simon Fraser University, said that as the government itself has just introduced legislation that enshrines more aggressive climate action into the law, it is quite clear that more climate policies are coming. .
And he points out that the report is clear that its “evolving scenario” of more ambitious climate action does not go far enough to see Canada achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson presented legislation last week to target it.
“Net-zero” means that no emissions are produced or those that are produced are absorbed by nature or technology, so they are no longer added to the atmosphere, where they contribute to global warming.
Gunton said “in the most likely scenario you won’t need these pipelines, so you should at least postpone or shelve construction.”
He said if the projections change, they can be revised, but at the moment we could spend more than $ 22 billion building pipelines that aren’t needed.
Keystone XL is already in jeopardy as US President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to revoke Washington’s approval for the cross-border project. Trans Mountain restarted construction in 2019 after a hiatus in 2018 due to the court decision on federal approval.
READ MORE: Biden’s Keystone XL Decision Could Be A “Difficult” Time For Canadian-US Ties: Senator
Watch below: some Global News videos on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Canada Energy Regulator CEO Gitane De Silva told Canadian Press in an interview that the report’s goal is not to comment on existing policy, but to paint a picture of where things might go by using a variety of assumptions.
“In fact, our hope is that this information will help inform the political process in the future,” he said.
The report concludes that even with its “evolving” scenario of more climate action after 2020, Canada will still receive nearly two-thirds of its energy from fossil fuels in 2050.
READ MORE: Kenney responds to May and Blanchet, calls oil industry comments “non-Canadian”
It is said that to get to net zero, more must be done to abandon fossil fuels.
© 2020 The Canadian Press
.
[ad_2]
Source link
