B.C. newspaper publisher David Black has asked the federal government to suspend – just weeks after it was launched – a federal environmental panel review of his ambitious plan to build a “nation-building” $18-billion oil refinery near Kitimat.
The proposed project has generated considerable publicity, and at least an equal amount of scepticism, since it was first floated in 2012.
Black, who is seeking a $10-billion federal loan guarantee, pitched his “Kitimat Clean” project as a cleaner and less-controversial alternative to Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
The Enbridge project, in jeopardy due to stiff First Nation and public opposition and a pending northern B.C. coast crude oil tanker moratorium, would involve the shipment of diluted bitumen via pipeline to Kitimat. There it would be put on tankers that would go through the Douglas Channel to Asian markets.
Peter O’Neil – Vancouver Sun – November 16, 2016.
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