Canada’s provincial energy regulators are banding together to cooperate amid hold-ups in constructing new pipelines across the country.
The Western Regulators Forum, which includes agencies from Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, is working to increase efficiency in the process of approving energy projects, Alberta Energy Regulator Chief Executive Officer Jim Ellis said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The group includes the participation of the National Energy Board, the agency that approves pipelines that cross provincial borders.
Canadian energy producers have struggled to get growing production from the oil sands in northern Alberta to coastal markets, with projects such as Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain expansion and Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipelines to British Columbia stalled amid local opposition and legal challenges.
Robert Tuttle – Bloomberg – December 2, 2014