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The National Energy Board’s unprecedented decision to widen its study of the Energy East pipeline to include much broader climate change impacts suggests that the fix is in to kill the proposed $15.7 billion project.

The politically savvy have been saying for a while that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants the Alberta-to-New Brunswick project gone because it’s too politically risky in Quebec and Ontario, where he needs votes to get re-elected.

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One of them is Dan Tsubouchi, chief market strategist at Stream Asset Financial Management LP in Calgary, who said back in May that “Energy East is not likely to get done, primarily due to the social opposition to the pipeline in Ontario and more so in Quebec … We can’t see the Liberals fighting against Quebec firstly and Ontario secondly on Energy East, especially if Keystone XL and Trans Mountain expansion proceed, or even if they don’t.”

On the other hand, the narrative goes, Trudeau is expected to keep on backing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta to the British Columbia coast because it would cost fewer votes, regardless of the new B.C. NDP government’s multiple ploys to get it stopped.