BURNABY, B.C. — The Canadian government has acquired a seventy-mile oil pipeline spur running to refineries in Whatcom and Skagit Counties.
The Seattle Times reports it’s part of Canada’s much bigger purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline running from Alberta’s tar sands to shipping terminals in Burnaby.
Canada bought the pipeline project from Kinder Morgan in hopes of completing a planned expansion of it for a big increase in exports of crude oil.
The Times reports that Kinder Morgan had also hoped to expand the pipeline spur into northwest Washington with the potential to begin crude exports from Cherry Point and Anacortes.
The pipeline expansion has been strongly opposed by tribes, environmentalists and the British Columbia and Washington State governments.