Canada's Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a bid by environmental groups to appeal a natural gas export ruling by the National Energy Board.
The groups opposed licenses approved last January by NEB to export gas to a number of U.S. buyers to fuel cogeneration projects.
The approvals included exports by CanStates Gas Marketing Ltd., Chevron Canada Resources Ltd., Renaissance Energy Ltd., and Western Gas Marketing Ltd. to ship about 430 bcf for terms as long as 15 years.
NEB reviewed its decision after a Supreme Court of Canada ruling involving electrical power exports by Quebec Hydro to New York state. Environmentalists said that ruling required the board to examine the upstream environmental effect of gas export projects (OGJ, Sept. 26, p. 36).
The NEB upheld its original decision following the review, and environmentalists took the issue to the Federal Court of Appeal. The court gave no reason for its finding.
Mike Sawyer, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Coalition, called the court decision "despicable." He said environmentalists will attack Canadian gas sales at their source-in the U.S. His group vowed to mount a campaign this winter in the gas markets of California and the Pacific Northwest against Canadian environmental regulations.
Laurie Smith, a Calgary lawyer who represented one of the U.S. export applicants at the NEB hearings, said the federal court decision should end legal challenges of exports based on a federal environmental law that will be phased out by Ottawa at yearend.
Ottawa said the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act passed in 1992 will be proclaimed as law in January. It will replace the current environmental assessment review process and exempt oil and gas exports from federal assessments. Environmentalists have been using current federal regulations to challenge gas exports.
The change in federal legislation has been welcomed by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
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