Transmountain: Same pipeline, new realities
Claudia Cattaneo Apr 27, 2012 – 8:09 AM ET | Last Updated: Apr 27, 2012 8:13 AM ET
business.financialpost.com
In 2008, Kinder Morgan Canada added 75,000 barrels of capacity to its Trans Mountain pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver at a cost of $750-million, which included 13 new pump stations, twinning the system through Jasper National Park in Alberta and Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia.
It faced little opposition, completed its regulatory hearing within a week, and provided contracting and employment to the Aseniwuche Winewak and Simpcw First Nations and the Alberta Metis Zone IV community.
When the project was completed, the Town of Jasper and the Village of Valemount thanked Kinder Morgan Canada for the opportunity.
Today, the company’s president, Ian Anderson, has cleared his deck and plans to dedicate the next five years of his career to a single goal — win support for and build a $5-billion expansion of the same pipeline, which has been in operation for 62 years. He is planning a campaign of unprecedented magnitude for his company, a unit of the Houston-based infrastructure giant, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners.
It’s a measure of how the Canadian pipeline business has changed as a result of activists targeting export pipelines to choke oil sands growth and rousing fear in affected communities about risks to the environment.
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