OTTAWA – The Green Party is not surprised with the decision released yesterday, by the National Energy Board (NEB), to approve, with conditions, the Enbridge Pipelines application for the Line 9B Reversal and Line 9 Capacity Expansion Project.
Enbridge obtained approval for the Line 9B reversal of a 639 kilometer section between North Westover (Ontario) and Montreal (Quebec). Enbridge can also go forward with increasing Line 9 overall capacity from 240,000 to 300,000 barrels per day from Sarnia to Montreal. The new revised Line Rules and Regulations Tariff will also allow transportation of so-called "dilbit." Since unprocessed bitumen is a solid and cannot flow in pipelines, it is proposed that the bitumen will be mixed with another fossil fuel product called "diluent."
“The Green Party continues to oppose any and all pipelines conveying unprocessed bitumen, mixed with imported toxic diluent, to ports for export. We do not believe the Energy East pipeline or the Line 9 reversal are really about getting Alberta product to Eastern Canadians, but to tankers, this time on the east coast. Should there be a leak, bitumen and diluents have proven impossible to clean up. Canada's energy security can only be enhanced if the bitumen is upgraded to synthetic crude and processed in refineries closer to the resources." said Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and leader of the Green Party of Canada.
“Enbridge’s Line 9 is 38-years-old, and it simply doesn’t measure up to our environmental standards. There have been at least 35 spills associated with the pipeline, and some of these haven’t even been reported to the communities they affect. We need proposals to refine our oil here at home with a view to national energy security, but the Canadian economy won’t reap the benefits unless we can be sure that there are adequate safeguards in place to protect against damaging oil spills,” said Bruce Hyer, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay–Superior North and Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada.
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