Critical Analysis of the BC Pipeline: Examining Benefits and Drawbacks

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the BC pipeline issue, focusing on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in British Columbia, Canada. It examines the project's economic benefits, such as increased port tanker traffic and fuel production for electricity and fertilizers, while also addressing its significant drawbacks, including environmental risks like oil spills and opposition from indigenous communities. The essay delves into the complex relationship between the pipeline project, climate change, and the rights of indigenous populations. It explores the legal challenges and concerns raised by various groups, particularly regarding consultation processes and environmental impact assessments. The analysis also presents a critical approach to the issue, evaluating the biases and limitations within the decision-making processes, including the assessment of potential leak impacts and the acknowledgment of diverse perspectives. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of energy justice, considering both the practical and cost-effective aspects of pipelines in energy infrastructure, and the necessity for secure operation and maintenance to minimize environmental and public hazards. The essay also references various studies and articles to support its arguments, providing a well-rounded perspective on the topic.

The favour and against views of BC Pipeline issues, with its critical approach

Thesis statement:
The present study elaborates about the pipeline issue in British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada. It elaborates its pros and cons with its critical analysis. This study elaborates about
the issues between indigenous and settler communities.
Pipeline issue in BC:
The expansion in Trans-mountain pipeline would take billions of currency, but it would also
enhance the cost to port tanker traffic, and with that a hazard for oil leaks would also
enhance. The major issue is B.C and the first countries oppose this system but Alberta needs
it gravely, and later the demand from U.S. oil giant, Ottawa has acquired it to construct it by
themselves ("What the Trans Mountain pipeline will mean for B.C.'s coast", 2018).
Pipelines are a serious issue for Canada’s natural gas and oil substructure. Pipelines are the
harmless and the well-organized technique to transfer the huge volume of natural gas and oil
from the expansion regions to plants. A huge area of pipeline exists across Canada which can
be presented as approximate 830,000 km. The federal government controls approximate 10
per cent of Canada’s pipeline which is approximate 73,000 km. It can be elaborated as the
largest transmission pipeline in Canada. The remaining pipelines are regulated by their
province government itself (Canada Pipeline Maps & Facts | Trans Mountain Pipeline,
Keystone XL, Enbridge Line 3, n.d.).
In favour:
The pipelines are applicable for providing the fuel to produce the electricity and the
construction blocks for fertilizers to enhance the crop manufacturing. Pipelines also
accumulate the crude oil from various rural regions for delivering it to the chemical plants
and refineries, which is applicable to create the petrochemicals and petroleum manufacturing
products.
Natural resources are the main raw material for the energy production which is very essential
for the world consumption. These natural resources are investigated in totally different sites,
where these are eventually refined their fuels. However, various transportation methods are
used for transferring these products in the market, but pipeline is the harmless, effective and
financial methods to transfer these natural assets.

In Opposition side:
The 5.6$ expansion project, which Ottawa bought in 2018 and it approved in June 2019 with
huge opposition, would observe the pipeline’s capacity nearby triple as many as 890000
barrels of oil on daily basis (Bakardjieva, Felt &Teruelle, 2018).
In December, the Federal court of Appeal heard the issues of four indigenous communities.
They show their views as they were not adequately consulted by the government during
2018-2019. They also raised their fear that an enhancement in tanker traffic off the BC coast
could lead to a spill, due to oil exporting on large scale (McLean, 2018).
The legal challenge with Canadian Government is that they had consulted with a handful of
indigenous groups along the 715 miles mountain route. Some of those groups had raised their
concerns about the project impacts on their right and environment (Datta & Hurlbert, 2020).
Critical approach:
Initially, a plan-specific opportunity obstructed the search of justice within and between
generations in terms of various parameters as, the pipeline’s assistances to climate change,
influences of the oil sands, and increasing violation on Aboriginal properties, which were
omitted from assessment. Secondly, the NEB formed a grading of information as it
deliberated indication of possible leak influences as theoretical model, while accepting as an
element the supporter’s claim that it could stop and accomplish leaks (Hoberg, 2018).
Third, diversity remained elusive acknowledgment, in terms of the Aboriginal countries’
disappointment with the procedure and they defied the NEB’s clarification of expressive
discussion and practical justice. To discourse the experiments of climate change and
compromise between Aboriginal and immigrant countries, it is critical to recognize which
kind of proofs the decision-makers distinguish as legal or which kinds of proofs they
eliminate. Thoughts from energy impartiality can assist the supportive activities to improving
the public suitability of energy choices, as well as to substitute greater Aboriginal
independence (Hunsberger & Awasis, 2019).
On the other hand, Pipelines can be elaborated as most practical and the cost-effective
method for transporting the oil and gas. It is also a most reliable part of the worldwide energy
structure. The pipelines deliver the basic substructure for transporting the petroleum products
for both sectors as downstream and the upstream sectors. Pipelines’ secure operation and

maintenance are essential to endure and diminish the hazard for environment and public.
Regulatory authorities need operators for implementing and developing the IMP program or
pipeline integrating management programs on the basis of industry standards.
Integrity assessments are the general which ensured the compliance with certain regulatory
needs. The traditional IMP examination is the most applicable procedure which determines
compliance but it does not essentially deliver the data about the program effectiveness (Iqbal
et al., 2018).

References
Bakardjieva, M., Felt, M., & Teruelle, R. (2018). Framing the Pipeline Problem: Civic
Claimsmakers and Social Media. Canadian Journal of Communication, 43(1).
CAPP. n.d. Canada Pipeline Maps & Facts | Trans Mountain Pipeline, Keystone XL,
Enbridge Line 3. [online] Available at: <https://www.capp.ca/explore/oil-and-natural-
gas-pipelines/> [Accessed 26 March 2020].
Datta, R., & Hurlbert, M. A. (2020). Pipeline Spills and Indigenous Energy
Justice. Sustainability, 12(1), 47.
Hoberg, G. (2018). Pipelines and the Politics of Structure: Constitutional Conflicts in the
Canadian Oil Sector. Rev. Const. Stud., 23, 53.
Hunsberger, C., & Awâsis, S. (2019). Energy justice and Canada’s national energy board: a
critical analysis of the line 9 pipeline decision. Sustainability, 11(3), 783.
Iqbal, H., Waheed, B., Tesfamariam, S., & Sadiq, R. (2018). IMPAKT: Oil and gas pipeline
integrity management program assessment. Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering
and Practice, 9(3), 06018003.
McLean, J. (2018). Public Perceptions of Pipeline Development in Canada (Master's thesis,
Faculty of Graduate Studies).
What the Trans Mountain pipeline will mean for B.C.'s coast. (2018, June 26). Retrieved
March 26, 2020, from
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/kinder-morgan-trans-
mountain-pipeline-bc-coast/article35043172/