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To that end, B.C. will establish an independent scientific advisory panel to make recommendations on if and how heavy oils can be safely transported and, if spilled, cleaned up.

Tuesday’s announcement did not specifically mention Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, which will boost the shipments of oil from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C. from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 bpd, but the B.C. NDP had promised to block the pipeline’s construction during an election campaign last year.

In an interview with the Financial Post, Heyman said B.C.’s Environmental Management Act “gives us the right, in addition to our responsibility, to defend B.C.’s vulnerable coastline, our inland waterways, our economic and environmental interests and that’s what British Columbians expect us to do.”

He acknowledged the potential for a legal challenge to the new rules, as railways and pipelines that cross provincial borders are federally regulated.

“We’ll deal with a legal challenge when and if it happens,” Heyman said. He added that B.C. will consult with its citizens on the proposals ahead of implementing the rules as law “later this year or in early 2019.”

Burnet, Duckworth and Palmer partner and chair John Brussa said the new rules “sounds like it set it up for a huge constitutional fight.” Brussa is both a Calgary-based energy lawyer and a director of several oil and gas companies, including Baytex Energy Corp.

“I think intra-provincial commerce is clearly the purview of the federal government,” Brussa said.