A pathetically poor attempt to deflect blame from useless Canadian politicians and agencies has arisen from the typical NDP/Liberal defenders. They are (unbelievably) claiming that it is not politics, but economics which might kill Energy East.
What a joke.
The project was first announced August 2013, and after 15 months of consultation, the application was filed with the NEB October 2014. 3 year later and still no approval. Just delay after delay. Meanwhile, 300,000 barrels of Saudi oil were (and still are) filling New Brunswick’s refinery every single day.
For the past 3 years, have economics delayed shovels going into the ground? Certainly not from the government’s perspective: the project would create 14,000 jobs and generate $10 billion in additional tax revenue–at no cost to the taxpayer (how stupid are our political leaders?). If the project was approved in a reasonable amount of time after its application, it may very well have been built by now.
Energy East is a long-term project designed to meet the demand to move growing Canadian oil production. So long as the pipeline can be filled, TransCanada can charge its tolls and have a long-term, profitable operation.
TransCanada cited in its press release, their suspension of the project’s application was due to “significant changes to the regulatory process introduced by the NEB.” Should we not believe them? Are they lying? They are a publicly-traded company: their primary responsibility is to their shareholders. How would hiding the project’s economics from their shareholder help them?
Politics is destroying this country’s ability to build pipelines and stay competitive on the world stage. We have a serious problem in our country, we must get behind these infrastructure projects or we will face major consequences. Attempting to downplay the our horrifically bad regulatory regime and changes only hurts our Country’s most vulnerable.
