Red Rock Indian Band has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with TransCanada to launch a formal working group for the electricity transmission opportunities in support of the 4,600km Energy East Pipeline project on the Red Rock First Nation territory in northwestern Ontario, Canada.
The route is too close to environmentally sensitive areas, mainly waterways up north and along the St. Lawrence River, and should be moved away from them.
“Ontario needs to be assured there is sufficient supply”, said Fraser, who noted about half the pipeline will run through the province and that the board did hear from people in favour of the pipeline. In November, 2013, Minister of Energy Chiarelli asked the OEB to examine and report on the Energy East Pipeline from an Ontario perspective, including the potential impacts on Ontario natural gas consumers in terms of natural gas prices, reliability and access to supply.
Union Gas Limited, a natural gas storage, transmission and distribution company based in Ontario, said it reached the same conclusion. “We want assurance that Ontario natural gas customers will not bear the costs and risks related to the Energy East oil pipeline and we continue to be open to finding a satisfactory resolution of these issues with TransCanada”. The findings included in the OEB’s report are consistent with numerous concerns raised by Union Gas since the project was initially proposed.
The Energy Partnership Working Group (EPWG) will enable the firms to negotiate on the electricity transmission viability to power the Energy East Project.
“These kinds of analyses tend to focus on just the benefits of all the spending and not on the other kinds of costs associated with the project in Ontario…for example costs related to additional emergency preparedness and other infrastructure upgrades that might be needed”, said Fraser.
While more than 40 percent of the pipeline will cross Canada’s most-populous province, it will produce “only modest economic benefits”, the Ontario Energy Board said in a report Thursday.
The National Energy Board is assessing Energy East to make a recommendation to the federal government, which has the authority to approve or reject the line.
Greenpeace welcomed the OEB’s conclusion that the risks of the pipeline project outweigh the benefits.
“The top concern we heard was the risk of an oil spill”, Ontario Energy Board vice-president Peter Fraser told a news conference. The agreement allows for discussions on the feasibility of providing electricity transmission for the Energy East Project and for the first time in the community.
