The National Energy Board will listen to 60 hours of oral arguments for and against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion proposal in January in Burnaby.
The NEB has set the dates for oral testimony at hearings in Burnaby and Calgary.
The Burnaby hearings will begin January 19, 2016 and run through January 29 at the Delta Burnaby Hotel and Conference Centre. Hearings in Calgary will run from February 2 to 5.
A total of 59 interveners will be given up to 40 minutes each to make oral summaries at the Delta hearings. Another 14 interveners will give oral summaries in Calgary.
Trans Mountain will be given 60 minutes to make its final oral argument.
The Trans Mountain pipeline project is an expansion of the existing Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE:KMI) oil pipeline that runs from Alberta to Burnaby.
The project’s projected capital costs have continued to increase since it was first proposed, rising from $4 billion to $5.4 billion at a time when oil prices were double what they are now.
In a conference call with investors and analysts, Kinder Morgan recently confirmed the project is now more likely to cost closer to $7 billion.
The project has faced a number of hurdles, including roadblocks from the City of Burnaby, which has tried to use municipal bylaws to stop preliminary work from taking place.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge yesterday (November 24) ruled that federal law—invested in the NEB—trumps provincial and provincial law, meaning Burnaby cannot refuse to let the company do the work it needs to do.
The project does not face quite the same hurdles that the Northern Gateway pipeline faces. For one thing, the project is a twinning of an already existing pipeline. More importantly, the new federal Liberal government plans to implement a permanent moratorium on oil tankers on the North Coast, which would effectively kill the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
But the Trans Mountain project also still faces some hurdles from the federal Liberal government, which promised to overhaul the NEB and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency processes, which means the project could face additional regulatory requirements.
