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The government is currently mulling proposals produced by an expert panel that recommended the NEB be scrapped and replaced by two new bodies.

In an apparent attempt to ingratiate itself with a government looking for a good reason to kill Energy East, the board raised the regulatory bar to a level that Trans Canada does not seem prepared to even attempt to vault.

Dennis McConaghy, a retired former oil executive and author of the book Dysfunction: Canada After Keystone XL, called the NEB’s decision a “terrible blunder.”

“The decision to re-scope so profoundly is, fundamentally, a mistake by the panel — one implicitly endorsed by the Trudeau government,” he said. “If the government couldn’t abide more pipelines or LNG projects, it should have said so explicitly and not deferred the job to the NEB.”

The role of the board is to make recommendations to cabinet on whether projects are in the national interest, not to set policy, he said.

The decision to impose new conditions on projects by the NEB is the “very essence of dysfunction — and it’s getting worse,” said McConaghy.

If the government couldn’t abide more pipelines or LNG projects, it should have said so explicitly and not deferred the job to the NEB

In addition to blowing up the NEB, the government is about to introduce new legislation to cover future environmental assessments. The guiding principles going forward will go far beyond environmental impacts to consider social, health and economic aspects of projects, as well as gender implications. Environment minister Catherine McKenna told the Assembly of First Nations that the new system would be produced in a “co-development process” with an AFN committee.

Politicians such as outgoing Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall have called the proposals “subjective and nebulous,” while business groups like the Chamber of Commerce have responded by suggested the government is set to introduce an “unworkable” system that could effectively end investment in Canada’s natural resources sectors.

In their election platform, the Liberals promised to balance the environment and the economy.

It seems they have already lived up to all the promises they intended to keep.

• Email: jivison@nationalpost.com | Twitter: IvisonJ