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CALGARY – The National Energy Board has determined that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion that would move heavy oil from Alberta to the West Coast is in the public interest, but must first meet 157 conditions before it can go ahead.

The federal energy regulator recommended Thursday that Ottawa approve Kinder Morgan’s $6.8-billion project to expand oil shipments from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 890,000 bpd on its Trans Mountain pipeline system, as long as the company meets a series conditions limiting the project’s effects on the environment and aboriginal communities.

The company will also need to detail its plans to hire and train residents along the pipeline route, including aboriginal groups, for the construction of the line before construction begins.

“On the whole, taking into account all of the evidence in the hearing, considering all relevant factors, and given that there are considerable benefits nationally, regionally and locally, the board found that the benefits of the project outweigh the residual burdens,” the regulator’s chief environment officer Robert Steedman said Thursday.

Steedman said 93 of the board’s 157 conditions for the Trans Mountain expansion project were implemented following hearings held in British Columbia and Alberta, where affected parties were able to explain their concerns with the project.

The hearings in Burnaby, B.C. – the terminal point of the pipeline – were attended almost daily by protestors opposed to the project, including environmental and aboriginal groups concerned about increased oil tanker traffic in the Salish Sea and concerns that a spill of diluted bitumen carried through the pipeline would cause irreparable damage to the ocean environment.