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Interim NEB changes not enough, green groups say

[Environment Minister Catherine McKenna (L) and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr take part in a news conference in Ottawa on Jan. 27, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie]

The proponents of two controversial pipelines that would link Alberta’s oilpatch to coastline are circumspect about new measures being added to the environmental review process that are already underway, but environmental groups suggest the changes are a Band-Aid on a gaping wound.

Trans Mountain officials say they are reviewing the changes announced Wednesday, as pressure mounted on the new Liberal government to take a stand on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain and TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline proposals.

“While we have concerns about how this delay could impact the project schedule, we support the principle that public confidence in the review process is crucial,” Trans Mountain, which did not respond to a request for an interview, says in a statement.

Mark Cooper, spokesman for TransCanada, tells Yahoo Canada News that the company, which proposes a 4,600-kilometre pipeline from Alberta to a marine terminal in New Brunswick, wants to take the time to review the changes before commenting.

But he says the company supports “a strong and clear regulatory framework that helps Canadians see our commitment to building and operating oil and gas pipelines in the safest and most environmentally sound way possible.”

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said Wednesday that the government will introduce a new environmental assessment processes, as promised, following a thorough consultation process.

Until then, with two major projects now before the National Energy Board (NEB) and its much-maligned review process, Carr announced that upstream greenhouse gas emissions associated with the proposed projects will be included in the reviews.

He also said First Nations will have to be more fully consulted and engaged in the process.

The inclusion of climate impacts is a coup for environmental groups, who have long argued that the NEB should have to weigh emissions as part of its decision-making process.

However, most environmental groups, while lauding Ottawa for doing something, said the measures fall far short of addressing the flawed process.

“I’m glad they’re trying to fix a broken process. They’ve been left quite a mess by the previous government,” Karen Campbell, a lawyer for the environmental law group Ecojustice, tells Yahoo Canada News.

But “it’s a Band-Aid and we need more than Band-Aids.

“We need to stop the process and start again.”

Ecojustice made its final arguments earlier this week before the board panel weighing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal that would bring more bitumen from the Alberta oilsands to a terminal in Burnaby, B.C.

Minister Carr said Trans Mountain and Energy East proponents will not have to go back to square one in the review process but he will seek a four-month extension of the legislated time limit for a government decision on Trans Mountain. Six months will be added to the time limit for the Energy East review and another three for a government decision. Under the legislation, the government has three months to make a decision after the board panel issues its report.

Many groups that have vocally opposed both pipelines welcomed the changes and the promise of a more comprehensive overhaul of the review process in the future.

But most felt the interim measures aren’t enough.

“We are concerned that [Wednesday’s] announcement is simply to provide cover for projects that will massively increase emissions and betray Canada’s climate commitments,” says Larissa Stendie, a climate campaigner for the Sierra Club.

The Wilderness Committee called the changes “window dressing” because the reviews will continue to ignore downstream climate impacts.

“This is an important step forward, but the most significant climate impacts — the ones that occur when the fuels are burned — still aren’t being considered,” said Peter McCartney, a climate campaigner for the group.

“New LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals and tarsands pipelines like Kinder Morgan’s are incompatible with a livable climate. A true climate test would leave regulators with no choice but to reject these projects.”

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she supports the changes only because the minister says he will make an independent effort to review what she deems “weak and shoddy” evidence presented to the review panel by Trans Mountain.

The previous Conservative government “gutted” the environmental assessment process, putting it in the hands of an NEB that is inexperienced and “ill-suited for the role,” May says in a statement.

“The truth is that the current system must be totally replaced.”