National Energy Board

The National Energy Board was an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries.

Another complicating factor is the position of Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan, that equalization can be withheld from provinces that do not support raw bitumen export.

Under the UNDRIP, indigenous peoples on unceded lands, including those over which Northern Gateway and Energy East would need to pass, appear to most authorities to have a strict veto and not mere "consultation" rights as under Canada's 1981 constitution.

This especially affects Energy East, as New Brunswick and Quebec Maliseet accordingly have strict authority under UNDRIP to unilaterally reject it, as its proposed route crosses their territory (and those of a total of 180 aboriginal / indigenous groups).

In 2014 John Bennett, national program director for the Sierra Club Canada (SCC) criticized the NEB for considering changes in its approach to preventing oil spills in future offshore drilling in the Beaufort Sea.

Current policy requires companies working in the Arctic to have the capability to drill a relief well in the same season to release pressure and stop oil flow in case of a blowout such as the one that happened with BP in the Gulf of Mexico.

[17] In a letter dated August 21, 2015 NEB Board of Directors chair David Hamilton and fellow Members, Alison Scott and Philip Davies wrote a [18] In 1996 Kelly joined Purvin & Gertz, Inc. now IHS Inc. and was vice-president of IHS Global Canada, "an oil industry consulting firm hired by Kinder Morgan to do an economic study justifying the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.