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In Canada, the National Energy Board (NEB) regulates inter-provincial oil and gas pipelines and maintains historical records that contain data on oil and gas pipeline accidents; these data include information about operators, the accidents' cause, and the resulting consequences. New inter-provincial pipelines are being built in Canada to transport fuels, but no comprehensive statistical analysis of the risk to environmental receptors exists. This study assesses the quality and quantity of NEB pipeline failure data available in Canada with a focus on environmental consequences and investigates differences between Canada and a more thoroughly studied jurisdiction, the United States, in tracking accident data. The discrepancies in agencies' jurisdiction and regulated mileage are analyzed, along with reporting criteria and initial recording year. The level of detail provided by the two agencies is compared, identifying deficiencies in data collection. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) regulates 76% of pipelines in the United States, whereas the NEB only monitors 9% of pipelines in Canada. PHMSA provides four databases that include accidents from the 1980s for most pipelines and from 2011 for liquefied natural gas facilities; the NEB database includes accident data starting from 2008, which derive primarily from transmission pipelines. Information about environmental consequences is quite detailed in the US database, which reports 21 descriptive fields, whereas in Canada only two NEB database fields describe environmental outcomes. Moreover, dissimilarities in accident reporting criteria prevent the combination of data from the two agencies. Consequently, the NEB database does not allow for statistically robust and system wide analysis of the environmental consequences of pipeline failures in Canada. Furthermore, to calculate failure rates (annual number of accidents per kilometre of pipeline) for regulated pipelines, annual total mileage estimates are required. Mileage per year is provided by PHMSA for gas gathering, transmission, and distribution pipelines starting from 1984, and for hazardous liquid pipelines from 2004; the NEB provides annual mileage from 2010, a shorter period of record. The Canadian federal agencies are encouraged to improve accuracy and consistency in recording past accidents and in collecting pipeline data, with the goal of preventing and minimizing future pipeline failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the next several decades, oil and gas production in Canada is expected to increase to meet growing demand in the United States and the Asia Pacific Region. Currently, eight major pipeline projects are being proposed in Canada to transport increased oil and gas production to market. This paper reviews potential impacts of the pipeline projects and develops a methodology for evaluating the current regime for assessing and managing project impacts based on best practices criteria. The results of the evaluation show that only three of 14 best practices criteria are met. The most significant deficiencies are: lack of clear decision-making criteria and methods; absence of decision-making processes that contain a legal obligation to provide compensation to those negatively affected by a project and ensure project benefits are equitably distributed; and no provision for comparative evaluation of competing projects. This paper identifies improvements required in environmental assessment and planning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]