BC green lights LNG pipeline, with no need for new environmental assessment

The British Columbia government says a decade-old environmental assessment certificate remains valid for the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern BC, in a decision opposed by the province's Green Party and environmental groups.

The Environmental Assessment Office says it has determined the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline has "substantially started," fulfilling a requirement of the 2014 certificate and allowing the project to proceed without a new assessment.

The original approval was for a roughly 900-kilometre pipeline between Hudson's Hope in northeastern BC and Lelu Island near Prince Rupert, the site of a liquefied natural gas processing facility that has since been cancelled.

The pipeline was purchased by the Nisga'a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG last yea