Kinder Morgan Canada pipeline plans hits a mountain of opposition | Business | Reuters.
VANCOUVER (Reuters) – 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’ (KMP.N:Quote) C$5.4 billion ($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 (TRP.TO: Quote) Keystone XL and Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote) 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.
