TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline Project has Too Much to Lose and Little to Gain for Quebec

Montreal, Quebec August 2, 2013 – The World Wildlife Fund (WWF-Canada) and Equiterre are alarmed by TransCanada’s recent announcement that it plans to proceed with the Energy East Pipeline project. Despite the company’s claims with respect to the economic impacts of the project, WWF and Equiterre caution that the construction of pipelines will generally offer only short-term economic benefits. Moreover, the conservation groups say Quebec will be in a position to assume significant environmental and economic risks in the long-term.

The TransCanada project will carry crude oil derived from Alberta’s oil sands, the extraction of which generates 3-4 times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil from Canada or the United States.

For its part, WWF is concerned to see another pipeline project announced in the absence of a national energy strategy that takes climate change into account. “We know that in order to avoid the worst effects of global warming, we must take steps now to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels,” says Marie-Claude Lemieux, Regional Director for Quebec at WWF-Canada. “Yet all of these projects will continue to lock us in to a carbon-based economy for a long time to come.”

The conservation groups argue that although there may be more accidents recorded involving the transport of oil by rail, the volumes of pipeline spills are three times greater according to the International Energy Agency. “Regardless of the mode of transportation, there are always risks with moving crude oil,” says Steven Guilbeault, Executive Director of Equiterre. “That is why we must cease our dependence on fossil fuels.”

Oil Destined for Export
Initially claiming a capacity of 850,000 barrels per day (b/d), TransCanada is now looking at shipping 1.1 million b/d — or some 33% more than its controversial Keystone XL project to the U.S. Yet Quebec only imports 400,000 b/d. “It is clear that this oil is destined for export markets,” says Guilbeault of Equiterre.

TransCanada claims to be focusing its priorities on the energy security of eastern Canada. However, it has confirmed that investors in the United States, Europe and India have shown an active interest in its project. Irving Oil has already announced the construction of a maritime terminal in Saint John, New Brunswick to access the international market, and TransCanada has confirmed that another export terminal would be built in Quebec.

If the competing Enbridge project is to move ahead, the inversion of Line 9 could also channel an additional 300,000 barrels per day to Quebec by 2014. Public hearings on this project are currently underway at the National Energy Board.

As the commencement of public consultations on a provincial energy strategy is expected to take place this fall, Equiterre and WWF would like to make clear to the Quebec Government that the province has all the assets necessary to be a leader in the fight against climate change.

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For more information, please contact:
Sophie Giardina
Equiterre
514 605 2000

Marie-Claude Lemieux
WWF–Canada
514 260 6233
[email protected]