The pipeline seems to be more popular amid Trump's threat. But does it make sense to build new ones?
There was no grand opening when the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion opened on May 1, 2024, bringing oil from Alberta to the BC coast. Justin Trudeau's federal government bought the project and spent more than $34 billion (making the pipeline one of the largest infrastructure projects ever) hardly said.
“This is what the Liberal government does for the oil sector…they don't celebrate at all. There is no ribbon cutting ceremony.” Product environmentoil market research services.
Even Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith is the main Trudeau rival, thanking the Federal Liberal Party for completing the pipeline, Say that This will be a “game-changing” for the Alberta oil industry and take the federal capital cooperation as an example.
However, the Liberals have been severely criticized for their pipelines of climate advocates, who believe the government has betrayed its emissions reduction target and given the oil and gas industry (Canada’s largest greenhouse greenhouse gas transmitter, a huge enhancement).
All of this seems to be a distant memory during this week's Liberal Party leadership debate. In French language and English debate, leader leader candidates express warmer emotions about the pipeline.
“A project like ESTRE EAST is possible. It's a fact that a pipeline can be built into Quebec and a pipeline to the maritimes in Alberta. … I think this is an opportunity we should seize.”
“I am very proud of being able to get our energy into the Pacific. Diversity today is so valuable. It provides us with an alternative to the United States. We need more than ever before,” former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a UK debate on Tuesday.
All this is because Canada faces threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, even if Canada becomes the 51st state and imposes tariffs on Canadian exports (an economy that may reduce Canada's export dependence), which has sparked interest in new discoveries about Canadian economic and energy independence, including pipelines.
But even if the political climate is more beneficial to new pipeline projects, they are still facing a continuous transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
This means building new pipelines may make sense for Canadian energy security and politicians seeking leverage in the face of Trump, but it may not be very attractive for private companies trying to make a profit.
How do Canadians view the new pipeline?
Online Angus Reid Investigation Among the 2,012 Canadians occupied in late January, this indicates a rise in pipeline support.
Polls show that support for the West Pipeline Proposal Esert East, which was cancelled in 2017, has increased from 58% to 65% since 2019. Even in Quebec, support for pipelines reached 47%, when the project made proposals for environmental issues.
More than half of Canadians also seem to support the Northern Portal, a proposed pipeline that will bring Alberta oil to the BC coast, but was canceled by the Trudeau administration in 2016.
In BC, the poll found that 55% of those surveyed support for the North Gateway was initially opposed by many indigenous and environmental organizations, along the routes across the province and in the waters of northern BC.
“People are kind of like alternatives right now,” said Hayden Melting Kirkwood, a senior fellow at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.
He said the shift back to pipelines shows a lack of political imagination and Canada should use this moment to promote other industries – such as clean electricity or manufacturing, in a world far away from fossil fuels, whose future is more certain.
“There is a huge risk of stranded assets here and we will continue to redouble our efforts to infrastructure that we will not need in the coming decades,” he said.
“Instead of building new infrastructure that will last 100 years.”
Matto Mildenberg, a political science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies climate change policy and politics in North America, said that while political tensions with the United States open up space to talk about pipelines, he still hopes that any future liberal government will focus on the energy transition, which is the key to the party and a key priority for nearly a decade.
“I don't think anything we've heard from the Freeland and Carney campaigns suggests positioning climate as a problem,” he said.
What lessons have been learned from Trans Mountain?
The Trans Mountain project and its intoxicating cost overruns are imminent in future Canadian pipeline proposals.
Texas-based Kinder Morgan first proposed expanding the pipeline in 2012. The pipeline transports oil from Alberta to ports and refineries on the West Coast, and the company hopes to double its capacity and provide Alberta oil companies with opportunities to export to markets in Asia and elsewhere.
But the project faces major protests and legal challenges from environmental groups, Aboriginal people on the route and the British Columbia government itself. In 2018, Kinder Morgan suspended the project and said it may have to give up the project altogether due to all opposition parties.
The Trudeau administration then stepped in to complete the pipeline, buying the pipeline for $4.5 billion and spending billions of dollars to build the expansion.
“Even if the budget exceeds the budget, and even if the pipeline itself never really breaks down as a separate project, the benefit of the royal family is the benefit of building it, that is, the federal government can take on a broader economic situation for whether it is worth taking.”
He said that means the government could take into account the long-term interests of Alberta, oil industry workers, and now there are ways to export oil without relying entirely on U.S. exports – even if the pipeline itself is not based on the expensive price to build as a business.
As part of the process of setting tolls for companies using pipelines, federal energy regulators will review why the project ends up costing so much.
“I think if we take this kind of national construction project seriously, we need to understand what's wrong with trans-mountain,” Johnston said. Other pipelines may not necessarily have such expensive obstacles, he said.
After more than a decade of delays and divisions, oil is now expanding the $34 billion transmount pipeline in Canada. Journalist Erin Collins and a CBC news team wore the entire route to discover how the pipeline transformed the community life they experienced.
What about the clean energy transition?
Since 2021, the International Energy Agency has advised on energy markets and forecasted industrialized countries: Climate change has become more frequent and severe to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and by 2050, the world needs to work hard to achieve net zero emissions.
This means no new long-term oil and gas projects should be established, the IEA said.
Last June, it predict By 2029, electric vehicles will become increasingly popular as power generation shifts to renewable energy, global oil demand will peak.
“If the world successfully reduces demand for fossils quickly to reach zero emissions, new projects will face major commercial risks by 2050,” the agency warned.
“As the energy transition progresses, Canadians will have to deal with the potential decline in the role of fossil fuels in the global economy. This will mean that the Canadian economy cannot be rooted in the extraction of fossil fuels for longer periods of time.”
“I think the way to think better about the damage caused by the current U.S. government is to think about the way Canada can be independent of energy in a way that meets climate needs.”
