NEB announces end to environmental assessments for most projects

The National Energy Board issued a letter yesterday confirming that projects that previously required an environmental screening assessment will no longer require an environmental assessment under the CEAA legislation.  This change comes as a result of the 2012 Budget legislation, which repealed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and replaced it with a new CEAA, 2012.

Environmental screenings were the lowest level of environmental assessment required under the CEAA legislation.  Screenings applied to pipeline projects where no more than 75 km of pipe was "new pipeline", meaning pipeline that is not adjacent to an existing utility corridor or year-round all-weather road.  Most pipeline projects were configured to fall within the screening category and it can be expected that this will continue so as to avoid any requirement for assessment under CEAA, 2012.

Read the NEB letter at: July 16, 2012.

Minister Oliver puts Joint Review Panel members in awkward position

Read the article by Professor Nigel Bankes that discusses the January 9, 2012 "open letter" from the Hon. Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources (click here).  This is the letter in which Mr. Oliver referred to "radicals" who will "hijack our regulatory system".  Professor Bankes wonders about the effect of the letter on the ongoing regulatory process:

For example, put yourself in the position of a JRP panel member. What would you think if the Minister responsible for the Board announced that: (1) the current system is broken, and (2) the NGP is clearly and obviously in the national interest (aka public convenience and necessity) the day before you had to open the hearings in one of the most affected communities? And more importantly, imagine the challenge facing that panel in convincing the community that the fix was not already in and that the job of the panel was to conduct a careful, independent and impartial review of the project.

Joint Review Panel has asked Enbridge to provide preliminary abandonment plan for Northern Gateway project

The Joint Review Panel (NEB and CEAA) considering the application by Enbridge for the Northern Gateway pipeline project has requested the following information from the proponent on the issue of pipeline abandonment:

Request: a) Please provide a preliminary abandonment plan for the Northern
Gateway Project, including:

a.1) a description of what pipeline components would be removed,
reused or left in place and provide the rationale for doing so. Where site specific situations require special methodology, then details should be provided;

a.2) the reclamation objectives or principles to be applied to abandonment; and

a.3) sufficient information to demonstrate that abandonment of the project will return the right of way to a state comparable with the surrounding environment.

b) Regarding consultation on eventual abandonment with stakeholders including potentially affected landowners and aboriginal groups, and other authorities and agencies, provide:

b.1) a summary of the consultation that has occurred, and

b.2) the strategy and processes for future consultation as the abandonment plan is refined.

c) Provide an estimate in 2010 dollars of the total cost to abandon the system, using Base Case components (as described in reference iv), or other better information available to Northern Gateway. If information other than Base Case components is relied on, provide an explanation as to why that information was used.

d) Explain the source of revenue that Northern Gateway will use to fund this liability. If the source is shipper tolls, provide an estimate of the impact on revenue requirement.

More information on the Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel is available at: Review Panel.

Federal Government does away with Joint Review Panel for NEB Act projects

The National Energy Board has announced that it will be conducting all environmental assessments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) of projects that fall within its jurisdiction.  The federal government has ordered the move in an effort to streamline the oil and gas project approval process.  Previously, the government, on its own initative or in response to a request by the NEB, could order that a joint review panel be established to review certain projects.  The joint review panel would consist of persons who "are unbiased and free from any conflict of interest relative to the project and who have knowledge or experience relevant to the anticipated environmental effects of the project". 

What changes for landowners?  Not much.  In practice Joint Review Panels have consisted mainly of members of the NEB and have been appointed only in a very limited number of projects.  Limited funding for participation in the Joint Review Panel process has been available, and the NEB suggests that it will continue to be available, but gives few details:

A participant funding program is being established which will provide financial assistance to support the timely and meaningful engagement of Aboriginal groups, landowners, Environmental Non-Government Organisations, and other interested parties in the regulatory review processes for major projects. The NEB participant funding program is being modeled on the existing CEA Agency program. [emphasis added]

No funding is available for landowner participation in the Board's regulatory review process of projects that are deemed not to be "major".  For instance, for pipeline projects where less than 75 km of the proposed line is not adjacent to an existing utility corridor or road, the only way landowners can gain access to funding under CEAA is if the government (through request by the NEB) refers the project to a joint review panel.  Neither the NEB nor the government have been receptive to requests for referral and, not surprisingly, very few proposed projects end up with more than 75 km of "new" pipeline (even those where the total length of the project exceeds 1000 km). 

Read the NEB announcement at: NEB Environmental Assessment.