CALGARY – Enbridge Inc. is months away from turning on the taps on the first meaningful new pipeline addition out of Canada in six years following a favourable court ruling in Minnesota.
In a 2-1 decision Monday that pipeline opponents have promised to appeal, Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Calgary-based Enbridge’s permits to build the 670,000-barrels-per-day Line 3 pipeline replacement across the state. The favourable decision means that Enbridge will avoid another delay in completing the project, which is now expected to be in service in the fourth quarter of this year.
“We see this as the last key regulatory hurdle for the project,” Scotiabank analyst Robert Hope wrote in a Monday research note, which called the Minnesota court ruling “a sigh of relief.”
“While there are a number of other legal issues outstanding for the project, we do not expect them to slow the project’s completion,” Hope said. In a note to clients last week, Hope had noted that regardless of the outcome, “we expect the issue will be appealed to the Supreme Court.”
The split appeals court decision upheld the pipeline’s certificate of need, route permit and environmental impact statement, which were granted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.
“These decisions were not made in a vacuum. Rather, they followed vigorous public debate,” Judge Lucinda Jesson wrote in the decision Monday.
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