Kinder Morgan challenges whether NEB should entertain the Enbridge Northern Gateway application

Kinder Morgan Canada (KMC) says that Enbridge's recently-filed Northern Gateway Application lacks the necessary evidence of commercial support for the project, meaning that Enbridge has not demonstrated the need for the project.  KMC's lawyer writes to the National Energy Board in his June 1, 2010 letter:

KMC respectfully submits the filed Northern Gateway application is incomplete and does not comply with the requirements of section 52 of the National Energy Board Act ("NEB Act") or the filing requirements.  Notably, the application is not supported by a successful open season process, nor is the application supported with any level of binding commercial support to demonstrate the need and necessity of the applied-for facilities.  In fact, in late 2005 Northern Gateway held open seasons for both the oil pipeline and condensate pipeline, respectively, and although Northern Gateway received "expressions of interest", this did not result in any binding shipping commitments.  In KMC's view, these shortfalls represent serious deficiencies and do not meet the Board's test for economic feasibility set out in the Alliance Pipeline decision.  Without at least some real and substantial evidence of need and necessity, the application appears to be intended to provide the applicant some type of competitive advantage so that it may pursue commercial support that it has not been able to achieve to date.  It appears to KMC that Enbridge is pursuing approval in advance of a demonstrated need for the project in order to create an "option to build" and use that option as part of its marketing process.

For these and other reasons, KMC has requested that the NEB defer further consideration of the Enbridge application until sufficient evidence of need for the project has been presented.