Cancelled Pipeline Projects in Canada
Canada’s energy industry has proposed several major pipeline projects over the past decade, but only the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has been completed.
Here are three other pipelines that were never completed:
Energy East: The proposed C$15.7 billion ($11 billion) project would have carried oil from Alberta to the Atlantic province of New Brunswick. TC Energy abandoned the project in 2017 after facing regulatory hurdles and opposition from environmental groups, particularly in Quebec.
Northern Gateway: Enbridge proposed the pipeline in 2006 to carry oil from Alberta to the northwest coast of British Columbia. The C$7.9 billion ($5.5 billion) project faced opposition from local and Indigenous communities who feared the risk of an oil spill. The project collapsed in 2016 after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government revoked its permit.
The project proposed by TC Energy would transport oil from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the main U.S. crude storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, and then to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The project was rejected by former President Barack Obama’s administration for environmental reasons but was revived during President Donald Trump’s first term. Former President Joe Biden revoked the pipeline’s permit on his first day in office in 2021.
Trump said that he wants the pipeline built on Monday, but South Bow said the project has moved forward. TC Energy is seeking to recover more than $15 billion from the U.S. government to cancel the project.
