DILBIT does the Nebbies

The National Energy Board has sided with Kinder Morgan in refusing the Province of BC's request for more details on how KM would handle an oil spill from KM's proposed $5.4-billion Edmonton-to-Burnaby Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. 
None of our business apparently. Kinder Morgan cited "commercial, security, and privacy reasons" for their redactions.

The NEB is also rather coy when it comes to identifying the former energy industry links among the members that make up their own ranks.  NEB bios are full of expressions like "contributed to the creation and development of major energy projects" without getting into exactly which projects and companies they represent. So to augment that lack of info - here's the Nebbies...

Not to pick on "Bob" in the toon specifically here but rather than the NEB stating that Mr. Bob Vergette was once "Vice President, Operations with a major North American liquids pipeline company", it would seem rather more to the point given NEB's current Trans Mountain review to include the info that company he was VP of was Trans Mountain Pipelines - even if it was a decade ago.

NEB Chair and CEO Peter Watson - formerly Deputy Minister of the Alberta Executive Council til last June - is at least straight up about NEB priorities. Last November he explained that "the board's main job is to ensure proper construction of the pipeline" while he saw environmental concerns as more "the job of the provinces and pipeline company".

NEB Vice Chair Lyne Mercier : 29 years with Gaz Metro.

Roland George : according to NEB "worked primarily in the private energy sector for over three decades", is also a Gaz Metro alumni, and held senior positions with the Canadian Energy Research Institute, or CERI, a not-for-profit tarsands booster. 

Philip Davies : Vice-President, Law and General Counsel of SaskPower ; VP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Encana Gas Storage

Shane Parrish : Manager of Business Development for Canadian Petroleum Engineering

Ron Wallace : From NEB : "At AGRA, he was involved in major oil and gas operations throughout the former Soviet Union and Russia where he managed major project assignments in conjunction with the World Bank."
Also "senior management positions with Petro-Canada and CanStar Oil Sands Ltd."

Kenneth Bateman : "VP of Legal Affairs for Enmax, a large energy distribution, supply and service company"

Alison Scott : Deputy Energy Minister of Nova Scotia and offshore oil promoter

James Ballem : former Conservative MLA and PEI Minister of Environment and Energy.

Mike Richmond : energy lawyer and Co-Chair of the Energy and Power Group at McMillan LLP; and on the board of the Ontario Energy Association.

Jacques Gauthier : one time personal envoy to Harper in 2010 for the Vancouver Olympics, served on the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on the Public Service, and was "senior VP and CEO of Kruger Energy Inc., where he headed up a new division dedicated to the development of renewable energy" . 
NEB bio : "Mr. Gauthier has contributed to the creation and development of major energy projects in Canada, the United States and Europe."

The only NEB member who doesn't seem to fit comfortably into the oil and gas sector insider mold is David Hamilton - Chief Electoral Officer and Deputy Minister and Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. 

Could be it's possible to be just a bit too much inside : 
NEB : Onshore Pipeline Regulation Incidents 2000 to 2012 :

"A truly captured regulator " said Marc Eliesen, a senior energy executive who once served as CEO of BC Hydro, when he quit his role as a NEB intervenor in the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain tarsands-to-tankers expansion project.

This post an update to Norm Farrell's from 2013 as more players have been added since.

Collected DILBITs
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DILBIT : The smartest guys in the room

Burnaby To Appeal NEB's Kinder Morgan Access Decision 

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Advertising Blitz During Election Doesn't Count as Elections Advertising: Elections BC Ruling

Kinder Morgan slaps Burnaby residents with multi-million-dollar lawsuit

Kinder Morgan questions how much B.C. First Nation still eats fish

Gay serum rumour riles Burnaby politics

Ok, I don't think we can pin that last one on the smartest guys in the room, but meantime ...

Energy Executive Blasts Kinder Morgan NEB Review As “Fraudulent,” Quits

Former BC Hydro CEO Marc Eliesen referred to the NEB as "industry-captured" and their Trans Mountain hearings as "a fraudulent process" and "a public farce" in his letter of resignation from the hearings. 

After the cross-examination phase of the review was inexplicably shelved, intervenors were instead invited to submit their questions in writing. Trans Mountain refused to answer them "or referred back to the inadequate information in the original application that gave rise to the question in the first place."

"Out of the approximately 2000 questions not answered by Trans Mountain that Intervenors called on the [National Energy] Board to compel answers, only 5 per cent were allowed by the Board and 95 per cent were rejected."

"The Board has sided with Trans Mountain dismissing the Province of BC’s need for answers in pursuit of its duty to British Columbians. The Province should cancel the Equivalency Agreement with the NEB on this project and undertake its own environmental assessment as the only meaningful way in which it will be able to effectively obtain the answers it seeks."

BC, you will recall, gave up its right to do its own environmental assessments so as not to unnecessarily duplicate the work of the National Energy Board; in 2010 BC signed an Equivalency Agreement promising to accept the NEB's decisions.   Ha. 

Economist Robyn Allen :  The National Energy Board Guaranteed Kinder Morgan a Fund to Push Pipeline Expansion Through Regulatory Review

"In a precedent setting NEB decision in 2011, the Board granted Kinder Morgan the right to pre-fund future expansion applications from five firm shipping customer contracts to its Westridge terminal. Two of the five companies funding Kinder Morgan’s pre-development costs are Chinese National Oil Companies PetroChina and Nexen, while the remaining three are US Oil, Astra and Cenovus. These companies pay an average premium of $1.45 per barrel to guaranteed $28.6 million per year is allocated to the special account.

Over a ten year period, Kinder Morgan will amass $286 million to push its expansion plans through regulatory review. Pre-funding through shipper charges means that the Canadian public and the Canadian economy bear the risk and the cost of Kinder Morgan’s pre-development process, rather than the risk and cost being borne by Kinder Morgan’s US based shareholders.

Kinder Morgan has confirmed that $136.3 million of its special fund has been allocated to finance the current NEB public review process."

Texas-based Kinder Morgan is the third largest energy company in North America, valued at $120 Billion. 

Update : Crowdfunding campaign raises thousands to support legal defence of Kinder Morgan protesters

Donate towards the legal costs to challenge Kinder Morgan in the courts.

Boris in comments : "Meanwhile, the price of oil and therefore the lucrativity of pipelines keeps falling as US production ramps up due to fracking and renewables reach cost parity with fossil fuels. The pipeline mayn't even be built but we'll be left with a fracked process to be abused for the next big thing."

More DILBIT

ETA : Eliesen's descriptive quotes re NEB hearings
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DILBIT : NEBBY's Fish 'n Chips!

Northwest Coast Energy News: DFO hands over fisheries protection along pipelines to the NEB.

"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has handed responsibility for fish and fish habitat along pipeline routes over to the Alberta-based, energy friendly National Energy Board. The same agreement also gives the National Energy Board responsibility for dealing with First Nations fisheries if a pipeline or power line crosses their traditional territory.

As of December 16, 2013,  Enbridge no longer has to apply to DFO for permits to alter fish habitat along the Northern Gateway route." 

From the NEB MOU : 

"... the NEB application assessment process will be relied upon by DFO to the extent possible, to ensure Aboriginal groups are consulted as required, and where appropriate accommodated."

Yesterday the DFO issued a clarification :.

"Fisheries and Oceans Canada has established a collaborative agreement with the National Energy Board that will help eliminate overlap and duplication during regulatory reviews while maintaining a strong regime to manage threats to fish and fish habitat.

The National Energy Board is best placed to deliver regulatory review responsibilities under the Fisheries Act for activities relating to federally regulated energy infrastructure (such as pipelines)." 

This is the same NEB that worked with the RCMP and CSIS to "monitor the risk posed by environmental groups and First Nations" prior to public hearings into Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project, which the NEB then dutifully approved in December :

"In the unlikely event of a large oil spill ... we found that the adverse effects would not be permanent and widespread."

No mention as yet of Nebby's Fish'nChips shops opening up along the proposed pipeline route.

Previous DILBIT toons
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DILBIT : National Enbridge Board approves Northern Gateway

From The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel :

"In the unlikely event of a large oil spill ... we found that the adverse effects would not be permanent and widespread."

And just in case you aren't convinced of this by reading it just the once, the National Energy Enbridge Board repeats it three more times in their report.

But "in the unlikely event of a large oil spill ..." :

"Our final condition requires the company to maintain insurance and other financial resources totaling $950 million. The financial assurances would include $100 million in ready cash for immediate costs, $600 million in insurance or similar instruments, and $250 million in financial backstopping such as guarantees by equity partners."

And what did we learn from the 3.3 million litre $1-billion cleanup at the Enbridge dilbit spill in Kalamazoo three years ago?

                                                         It sinks.

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DILBIT : "Every plant and tree died"

9.5 million litres of industrial waste water, the 10th largest spill of its kind in Alberta in nearly 40 years.

Houston-based Apache Corp, with a project based on Haisla reserve lands in the Douglas Channel, also wants to export LNG from the eastern Rockies to China via an expansion of its Pacific Trail Pipeline.
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DILBIT : Propaganda

More money for government ads in budget supplement

More DILBIT.

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DILBIT does Neanderthal

CBC : Top U.S. climate expert calls Conservatives 'Neanderthal'

Former NASA scientist James Hansen fires back at Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver

Foreign special interests and their deep pocket puppets

Previous DILBIT toons   

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DILBIT featuring Oily the Splot

 Yes it's a mashup rip from Dilbert.
You remember Oily the Splot, right? Korncob Kory Teneycke's little critter.
Oh crap. Reuters reports "a discharge of 700 barrels of crude oil from a 16-inch pipeline due to unknown reasons in Harris county, Texas" two days ago. 
How come we're getting this news from Bangalore?
Ok, one more ...

Ok, they get better :  MORE RECENT DILBITS
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