Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion plan faces renewed opposition as crude oil price drops

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion: lowering pipes into trench.

Local economists say that, barring a major war in the Middle East directly impacting top oil producers like Saudi Arabia,

Canada’s oilsands might be in for a prolonged period of lower crude prices

By Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun August 5, 2015

VANCOUVER — As the National Energy Board (NEB) gears up to hear final arguments on Aug. 24 into its embattled review of the proposed Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion, opposition is mounting as the price of oil drops, making the project less attractive.

Kwantlen Nation stunned to learn of Kinder Morgan drilling

Aboriginal drummers with the Kwantlen First Nation at a Kinder Morgan protest Thursday Feb 5, 2015,  near the Belmont Golf Course. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa.

by Mychaylo Prystupa, Vancouver Observer, Feb 5, 2015

Members of Kwantlen First Nation in Langley were surprised to discover that Kinder Morgan had just wrapped up one week of Burnaby-Mountain-style borehole drilling on their traditional territory.

The southwest B.C. aboriginal community, an hour’s drive from Vancouver, held a press conference to raise alarm about the drilling activity, that appeared to come without notice.

“There was absolutely no communication whatsoever,” said band member Brandon Gabriel on Thursday.

Kinder Morgan slammed for ‘accidentally’ omitting oil pipeline maps in federal application

Parliament asked to require Texas company to “re-start” its application after it neglected to upload oil pipeline maps to NEB website for people to see

Mychaylo Prystupa, Vancouver Observer, Feb 25th, 2014

Kinder Morgan was harshly criticized in the House of Commons Tuesday for not filing a complete application with maps for its Edmonton-to-Burnaby oil pipeline — a project that may disturb dozens of homes through several B.C. cities, depending on the path.

Secwepemc Women Warrior Society disrupt meeting, No to Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline

Tuesday, January 14, 2014, Tk’emlups, unceded, unsurrendered Secwepemc Nation, (Kamloops, Bc, Canada)

Secwepemc Women Warrior Society said a resounding No! to the Kinder Morgan pipeline today at an illegal engagement session between government and elected chief and council in Kamloops. The session was to push forward the federal government’s recent Eyford report on West Coast energy infrastructure and supposed “tanker safety”.

Trans Mountain pipeline shutdown after second leak in a month

Leak comes as company to hold public meeting on expansion plans

CBC News, June 27, 2013

Kinder Morgan workers at site of June 12 oil spill.

Kinder Morgan has shut down the Trans Mountain pipeline for the second time this month — this time, while the company is gearing up for a public meeting on a possible expansion.

The company says the pipeline was shut down north of Hope after “a small amount of petroleum product” was found in the soil around the pipe during a routine investigative dig.

Mass of protesters greets Northern Gateway pipeline hearings in Vancouver

Protesters march against Enbridge hearing in Vancouver, Jan 14, 2013.

By Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun, January 14, 2013

VANCOUVER — Making as much noise as they could to protest a process they say is undemocratic, several hundred activists from a broad spectrum of movements rallied Monday night against the first of Vancouver’s public hearings into Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

B.C. municipalities reject oil tanker expansion

CBC News, The Canadian Press, Sept 27, 2012

Municipal politicians have approved a resolution that rejects the expansion of oil tanker traffic through British Columbia coastal waters, but only by the narrowest of margins.

Delegates attending the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention voted 51 per cent in favour of a resolution to oppose projects leading to expanded oil tanker traffic.

Opposition to Trans Mountain pipeline nearing Northern Gateway levels

Nathan VanderKlippe, The Globe and Mail, Tuesday, Sep. 18 2012

In 2007, Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline ruptured in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, sending toxic oil into streets and homes.

Once a little-known factor in plans to carry oil to Canada’s West Coast, expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline now faces a level of public opposition almost as high as Enbridge Inc.’s controversial Northern Gateway project.

A new poll finds that 60.3 per cent of British Columbians surveyed are against Gateway, while 49.9 per cent oppose the twinning of the Trans Mountain system, a half-century-old pipe that already carries substantial volumes of Alberta oil to Burnaby, B.C.

First Nations canoeists protest pipeline twinning

CBC News, Sept 1, 2012

Dozens of paddlers in First Nations canoes took to the water Saturday to protest the twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, a project which proposes to dramatically increase crude oil shipments from Alberta to Burnaby.

Trans Mountain: The other Pacific pipeline

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE, The Globe and Mail, Aug. 04, 2012

Oil tanker prepares to fill up with Alberta Tar Sands oil at Burrard Inlet refinery.

It is a sunny Sunday and Vancouver is doing what it does best: looking pretty and post-industrial. Morning lights up the downtown’s glass horizon. A half-dozen scooters rip down the road in a platoon. Cyclists swish past Zipcar lots, kayakers and stand-up paddle surfers ply the waters.