Keep 'world's dirtiest fuel' out of Quebec, green groups say
Enbridge project. Tar sands oil would flow by pipeline from Alberta
The Gazette
Thursday, November 06
Environmental groups want the Quebec government to stop a plan that would ship the dirtiest kind of oil from Alberta's tar sands projects through Quebec to the U.S. East Coast and on to Texas - with some possibly being refined in Montreal's east end.
The plan, dubbed Trailbreaker by the pipeline company Enbridge Inc., calls for bitumen and other oil to travel along an existing network of pipelines from northern Alberta through Quebec to South Portland, Me. The company wants to reverse the flow of oil through two existing pipelines - Line 9 between Sarnia, Ont., and Montreal and the Portland Pipe Line between Montreal and South Portland.
Those pipelines transport oil from North Africa, the North Sea and Mexico from tankers docking in South Portland. The oil is sent to Montreal for refining, and then shipped to Sarnia.
With the flow reversed, Enbridge could ship up to 200,000 barrels of bitumen per day from Alberta to Montreal. According to Enbridge, 80,000 barrels per day could be delivered to Montreal refineries. The pipeline between Montreal and South Portland could carry up to 128,000 barrels per day.
The bitumen would be shipped to refineries along the Eastern Seaboard, and taken by ship to Gulf Coast refineries in the southern U.S.
"The idea is that they would get tar sands oil out to Quebec and the East Coast for the first time," said Matt Price, a spokesperson for Environmental Defence, an advocacy group opposed to the project. "They're trying to get this stuff down to the Gulf to the refineries that can process this heavy oil."
Going through Quebec would give Enbridge access to Texas refineries while it builds a pipeline from Alberta to Texas. That project is expected to be operating in 2012.
Enbridge spokesperson Curt Boechler said the project is "benign" because it will use existing pipelines. Landowners on whose property the pipeline sits won't notice any change, he said.
The $350-million project arose from an increased demand for Canadian oil over oil from overseas, Boechler said.
"It's a changing market," he said, adding that consumers want to rely less on oil from countries like Algeria and Argentina.
Bitumen is the heaviest and thickest form of petroleum, and refining it is expensive and complicated. It is a black, sticky form of oil extracted from the tar sands by injecting steam below the ground to force the bitumen out. It can be shipped through a pipeline only if it is heated or mixed with another kind of oil or natural gas. According to the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental group, producing one barrel of oil from the tar sands emits three times the greenhouse gas emissions of a barrel of conventional oil.
Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp said the province will closely follow the Trailbreaker project - which has yet to be submitted to the National Energy Board for approval.
"In Quebec, we have a plan for fighting greenhouse gas emissions that must be respected," she said this week.
"We have acted in a very strict fashion to encourage a move from oil and gas to cleaner energy sources. We will look at this project closely and keep in mind the application of our laws and regulations."
Refining any bitumen in Montreal would jack up Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions, said Steven Guilbeault, of the environmental group Équiterre, even as the province appears within reach of meeting Kyoto Protocol targets of reducing emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
"The question is: Do we as Quebecers want to encourage, with our money, the development of certainly one of the dirtiest fuels in the world?" Guilbeault asked. "Or do we want to do like the California and U.S. administrations have done over the past few months and say: 'Unless you guys clean up your act, we won't take your oil here'?"
Environmentalists say the tar sands are an environmental disaster, and one that is poised to grow as U.S. demand for oil shows no sign of abating. According a University of Toronto study on the tar sands' impact on the Great Lakes, refining bitumen into petroleum requires "massive use of water - and produces air emissions, water pollution discharges and increased greenhouse gas emissions."
Guilbeault said he would like to see Quebec hold public hearings on the project, either alone or jointly with the federal government. A poll conducted for several environmental groups in September found 72 per cent of Quebecers surveyed felt the project should be delayed until stronger laws are in place to control greenhouse gas emissions from the tar sands.
Enbridge plans to file a request with the National Energy Board for approval of the project. Company documents state it doesn't expect the federal agency to hold public hearings on the scheme.
The company does not have to get approval from Quebec, Boechler said. Whether the company would take part in any public hearings held here is "hypothetical," he added.
As for the environmentalists' concerns about increased greenhouse gas emissions in Quebec and Ontario, Enbridge has nothing to do with that, Boechler said.
"We are a transportation company - companies pay us to ship the product," he said. "Those issues are much larger and broader than Enbridge. Those discussions should probably take place involving customers and levels of governments, if that's how they choose to deal with it."
In Ontario, Environmental Defence is concerned Enbridge's plan will force that province to rely heavily on the tar sands for its energy needs.
Ontario gets 40 per cent of its oil from overseas sources that use the Montreal-Sarnia line.
"Once you cut that off, the whole province is then hitched to Alberta," Price said. "Ontario would be totally beholden."
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008
