http://grist.org/climate-energy/big-oils-new-strategy-if-you-cant-build-a-new-pipeline-just-overload-the-old-one/
[multiple links in on-line article]
7 Mar 2014
Big Oil’s new strategy: If you can’t build a new pipeline, just overload
the old one
By Heather Smith
Yesterday, Canadian pipeline behemoth Enbridge won government approval
for its plans for 9B, one of the most contentious pipes in pipe
business. While it doesn’t get much press, 9B is important because it’s
part of a hot, new trend in trans-national pipe dreams: Skirting
environmental review, and public scrutiny, by pumping dirty crude
through existing pipelines rather than building new ones.
Enbridge wants to use 9B to carry up to 300,000 barrels of tar-sands oil
per day to Quebec for refining and export. And it is determined to not
repeat the mistakes of TransCanada, the company behind the much-maligned
(and very publicly held-up) Keystone XL pipeline. Thus the tactic of
reusing old lines, a game that it has already played with several other
pipes.
One of those pipes was 6B, which dumped a million gallons plus of
freshly harvested tar-sands crude into Michigan’s water supply in 2010.
Another is Line 5, whose capacity was expanded 10 percent recently,
despite the pipeline’s being over 60 years old, and despite its running
through the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan and Lake
Huron, also known as a hell of a lot of fresh water. The effects of the
dilutant that is mixed with tar-sands crude to help it move through the
pipe are not well understood and are at least equal to, if not more
corrosive than, conventional crude.
Line 9, of which 9B is one part, is a 38-year-old stretch of pipeline
that runs along the northern part of Lake Ontario. It was originally
built to get Canadian crude out to Quebec. In 1998, the flow was
reversed to bring in cheap oil imports from West Africa and the Middle
East. Now, the National Energy Board has given Enbridge the go-ahead to
reverse it again, to funnel tar sands to Quebec.
It is not a huge surprise that 9B was approved. Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper has proclaimed an ardent desire to mitigate climate
change — but only if that does not in any way involve stopping, or even
slowing, the geyser of money issuing from the Alberta tar sands. Just
to be on the safe side, his administration has cut funding for
scientific research involving things like air quality, water quality,
emissions, and oil spills. It has also set up an $8 million fund to
audit nonprofits (i.e., environmental groups) and make sure that they
aren’t engaging in “partisan” political activity.
The Energy Board, a federally appointed three-person panel, was
operating under a new set of rules put in place after 1,500 people
showed up during the public comment period for another pipeline, the
Northern Gateway. In order to comment to the panel directly, opponents
of 9B had to fill out a 10-page application and prove that they would be
directly impacted. Even writing a letter of protest to the panel
required pre-approval.
The green light for 9B came with 30 conditions, so the reversal won’t
happen immediately. Meanwhile, pipeline opponents are reacting in
different ways. Groups like Rising Tide are calling for a direct action.
Others are pushing for an Environmental Impact Review.
A group called ForestEthics Advocacy filed a lawsuit arguing that the
new rules around comments are unconstitutional, and that the scientific
evidence given to the panel to make its decision was unsound. If the
suit succeeds, then oddly enough, the new rules surrounding pipeline
approval could be 9B’s undoing.
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