Ottawa ought to retract personal testimony to clear means for Enbridge pipeline rebuild: councillor

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An east-end councillor is urging the Metropolis of Ottawa to retract the testimony it gave at an Ontario Vitality Board listening to final yr and endorse Enbridge’s proposed $123.7-million pure fuel pipeline alternative undertaking alongside St. Laurent Boulevard.

The deliberate undertaking was rejected by the OEB in Could 2022 largely due to the municipality’s considerations that mechanically renewing main fossil gas infrastructure runs counter to town’s Vitality Evolution grasp plan and its bid to attain community-wide net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

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The OEB ruling surprised the province’s power sector however was hailed by environmental advocates as heralding a future through which municipal, provincial and federal governments and power regulation our bodies face more and more tough choices about what have been beforehand routine approvals for fossil gas infrastructure renewal.

Within the ruling, Enbridge was directed to come back again to the regulator when it had extra proof that the pipeline alternative was pressing and that the proposal was bearing in mind Ottawa’s evolving power necessities because it transitions away from fossil fuels.

Enbridge expects to carry its proposal again to the OEB early within the new yr and — if accredited — building would start later in 2024.

The corporate hopes to put in 13 kilometres of “further high-pressure metal pipeline segments” of assorted widths, 4 kilometres of “intermediate stress polyethylene pipeline segments” and different up to date infrastructure all through the 21-kilometre pipeline community.

“The St. Laurent Pipeline System is an important a part of Enbridge Gasoline’ pure fuel distribution community within the Nationwide Capital Area, immediately and not directly supplying pure fuel to roughly 165,000 clients in Ottawa and Gatineau,” stated Enbridge spokesperson Leanne McNaughton. “Now we have recognized and documented the necessity to change roughly 21 kilometres of this pipeline system, which is now over 60 years outdated.”

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She added that the corporate expects to submit its up to date proposal to the OEB in early 2024.

Based on a movement he’ll introduce on the metropolis’s Nov. 21 surroundings committee, Beacon Hill-Cyrville Coun. Tim Tierney needs town to disavow its earlier OEB submission on the Enbridge proposal and have it “stricken from the report” to clear the best way for the pipeline rebuild.

In an interview, Tierney stated that regardless of town’s adoption of its Vitality Evolution coverage and net-zero CO2 discount targets, “there’s no plan” to make sure an orderly transition away from fossil fuels whereas sustaining “power safety,” and that a lot of town’s push to succeed in internet zero by 2050 will hinge on choices by different ranges of presidency.

The movement additionally requires metropolis council to formally endorse the Enbridge proposal and flags the “grave considerations” Tierney claims are shared by three fellow councillors — Rideau-Rockcliffe’s Rawlson King, Alta Vista’s Marty Carr and Rideau-Vanier’s Stephanie Plante — that fuel service to clients on town’s east facet may very well be jeopardized with out town’s approval of the corporate’s pipeline alternative plan.

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Carr didn’t reply to a request for remark and Plante stated she was too busy to reply questions.

King, in the meantime, is at odds with Tierney in what’s proving to be Ottawa’s personal pipeline debate.

“I cannot assist Councillor Tierney’s movement,” King stated. “Metropolis employees ought to have the autonomy to supply skilled technical assessments and evaluation to impartial regulatory our bodies with out the concern of political interference.

“Council ought to by no means retract or contradict the opinion of Metropolis employees that’s made earlier than regulatory our bodies of their skilled capability, particularly if the proof and opinion supplied are consistent with the coverage path set by Council,” King added. “I consider that any retraction of feedback would undermine confidence in Metropolis employees.”

A member of town’s surroundings committee, King welcomed the OEB’s ruling towards the Enbridge proposal, stating in a Could 2022 interview that the rejection of Enbridge’s proposal signalled the daybreak of a brand new period through which power firms and regulators should account for net-zero planning by governments.

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Within the metropolis’s Could 2022 submission to the OEB, the municipality stated it expects renewable pure fuel to supply about 12 per cent of the neighborhood’s power necessities by 2050 relatively than the 50 per cent at present supplied by typical pure fuel — a 75-per-cent drop in demand “coupled with a supply-side shift to renewable pure fuel to serve this demand,” based on the OEB’s ruling.

“The Metropolis of Ottawa indicated that it had not but decided whether or not or for a way lengthy the prevailing pure fuel distribution infrastructure can be wanted to distribute renewable pure fuel,” the OEB added.

Enbridge, in the meantime, testified that the 21-kilometre stretch of pipeline alongside St. Laurent Boulevard is reaching its end-of-life state and requires alternative to proceed making certain protected, uninterrupted power provides to about 15 per cent of Ottawa’s inhabitants.

Tierney’s movement highlights the truth that Enbridge’s St. Laurent pipeline community provides vital east-end Ottawa providers, resembling hospitals, federal amenities, social and low-income housing.

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The movement additionally notes that Enbridge’s unique submission to the OEB was denied “based mostly on data supplied by the Metropolis of Ottawa,” and that “as Enbridge resubmits their utility to the Ontario Vitality Board, that earlier Metropolis-provided data could lead to the identical resolution.”

In its ruling, the OEB expressed doubt that Enbridge’s St. Laurent pipeline community had degraded to such a level that it posed any catastrophic danger to the general public. It additionally really useful higher high-tech monitoring of the pipeline to make sure security and dependable service relatively than endeavor a alternative undertaking that may prolong the lifetime of the community by many a long time, basically stranding long-term infrastructure property past the time they’d be wanted in an period of greening power necessities.

In issuing its 2022 ruling on the St. Laurent pipeline proposal and sending Enbridge again to the drafting board, the OEB additionally famous that “Enbridge Gasoline confirmed that it has not skilled any catastrophic failures (full ruptures of the pipeline) on any pipelines comparable in nature to the St. Laurent pipeline system.”

Tierney, nonetheless, stated that until the Enbridge plan is accredited, the OEB and metropolis employees are basically enjoying with fireplace and risking the potential of a significant fuel shutdown in the midst of an Ottawa winter.  He’s prepared to entertain a rewording of his movement, however insisted that the pipeline alternative is non-negotiable.

“We want this to occur badly… We want the fuel flowing.”

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