The National Energy Board has announced it will grant a two-day comment period into environmental group Stand.earth’s legal motion from Monday asking the NEB to expand its scope of review to include all upstream and downstream climate impacts.
The deadline for the comment period is 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Jan. 25.
The comment period is available only to the 90 intervenor groups who are already part of the reconsideration process.
• Intervenors (other than Stand.earth) may file comments on or before 3:00 pm Pacific time (4:00 pm Mountain time) on 25 January 2019.
• Trans Mountain may file comments on or before 3:00 pm Pacific time (4:00 pm Mountain time) on 29 January 2019.
• Stand.earth may file reply comments on or before 3:00 pm Pacific time (4:00 pm Mountain time) on 31 January 2019.
On Monday, Stand.earth filed a motion “with the NEB asking them to simply apply the same standard to Trans Mountain that they applied to Energy East when it comes to the pressing issue of climate change,” said Casey Leggett of Martin + Associates, who is acting as legal counsel for Stand.earth in the NEB process. “Anything short of that would be an abdication of the federal government's responsibility. There is not another form for these concerns about climate change to be heard — this is the last chance to do the right thing.”
In a news release, Stand.earth said that the evidence filed in the motion says the federal government knows more about how dangerous climate change than it did four years ago during the project’s original assessment, “which is why it’s important for the NEB to look at these issues. The NEB opted throughout the original review process to avoid considering the Trans Mountain Pipeline’s upstream and downstream climate change impacts.”
