Gwyn Morgan: Build east-west pipelines? We were doing that, remember?

financialpost.com:

The Feb. 11 edition of the Financial Post was headlined “West-East pipeline talks perk up oilpatch ears as U.S. targets Canada.” Federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne was quoted as saying the new rules of Canada-U.S. relations “may mean you need pipelines that go west-east.”

Wow, what an insightful revelation! For decades, Liberal governments have stymied pipelines to both the east and west coasts, forcing oil producers to sell to U.S. refiners at huge captive-market discounts.

In 2010, Enbridge filed regulatory application for the Northern Gateway Pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat. The innovative project would carry diluted oilsands crude to the seaport where the condensate would be removed and shipped back to dilute more crude. After four years of hearings, environmental reviews and stakeholder consultation, the Harper Cabinet approved the project. But in 2016, that was struck down after legal appeal by Indigenous bands claiming insufficient consultation. Enbridge launched a new round of consultation, only to see Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stymie the project, saying no pipelines should cross the newly created “Great Bear Forest Reserve.” After six years and multiple lawsuits, a pipeline that today could have been onstream for a decade was dead.

In 2014, TransCanada Corporation filed regulatory application for the Energy East Project, which would convert a natural gas pipeline to carry western oil to Ottawa. A new pipeline would then transport the oil to Montreal refineries before continuing past Quebec City to the Irving refinery in Saint John, N.B. It’s hard to envision a more economically beneficial and environmentally benign project. Rather than new construction, an unused pipeline would be