(Reuters) – Environmental campaigners are criticizing Canada’s energy regulator for approving a “variance” request on a section of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline project, calling new conditions around material procurement accompanying the approval too lenient.
Last week the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) agreed to Trans Mountain’s request for a variance that will enable the Canadian-government-owned pipeline to use smaller diameter pipe on a 2.3-kilometre (1.4 mile) section in British Columbia, known as the Mountain 3 crossing, after encountering challenging drilling conditions due to hard rock.
The CER’s approval clears the way for the long-delayed completion of the C$30.9 billion ($22.9 billion) expansion that will ship an extra 590,000 barrels-per-day of oil to Canada’s Pacific Coast.
Environmental activists say the CER’s conditions around the materials…
