Kinder Morgan Canada pipeline plans hits mountain of opposition – Prairie Business

October 27, 2014

VANCOUVER — A Western Canadian pipeline once seen as the best near-term hope for sending more of the country’s controversial tar sands crude to Asia has hit another snag: aboriginal communities intent on using the courts to block the proposed expansion.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ $4.8 billion Trans Mountain expansion would twin a 60-year-old line running from the oil-rich province of Alberta to the coastal city of Vancouver, tripling its capacity.

The pipeline expansion had been seen as sure bet because it uses an existing route. But a surge in municipal opposition in recent months has fueled industry worries that it will enter legal and regulatory limbo along with the unbuilt TransCanada Corp. Keystone XL and Enbridge Inc. Northern Gateway pipelines.

The odds against the expansion are growing. Aboriginal communities along the route, angered by a consultation process they call unfair, are strategizing as a group on legal tactics they hope will stop the project dead.

Read More: http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/21421/group/Energy%20and%20Mining/