
The NuStar Terminals Canada Partnership in Point Tupper includes a ship loading facility. Photo by Tom Ayers, Cape Breton Bureau/ The Chronicle Herald.
Could the Energy East pipeline be headed for Nova Scotia?
The Guysborough Journal reports, “Guysborough council voted in favour of sending letters of support for the initiative to bring the Energy East Pipeline past New Brunswick and into the Strait Area to the Premier of Nova Scotia and the appropriate federal representative at the regular council meeting on Wednesday, December 10. The extension of the pipeline into the area would be a great advantage to the MODG [Municipality of the District Guysborough] in light of various projects that are currently on the drawing board in the municipality.”
In a February 2014 campaign blog, we noted that San Antonio, Texas-based NuStar Energy LP was seeking to have the Energy East pipeline extended an additional 500 kilometres from Saint John, New Brunswick to their Strait of Canso terminal and storage facilities in Point Tupper, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The company has been in conversation with TransCanada and the provincial government of Nova Scotia about this. The province’s Liberal energy minister Andrew Younger has said that he sees the benefit of the company exporting Alberta crude oil from Cape Breton.
The NuStar facility is 48 years old and the Chronicle Herald has reported that there are small oil leaks there roughly twice a year due to age, rust and corrosion.
MODG Warden Vernon Pitts says, “It only makes sound economic sense to extend the pipeline right down into the province of Nova Scotia. It should go at least as far as the Strait of Canso.”
For more on our campaign to stop the Energy East pipeline, please click here.