Constructing scale, eroding responsibility: the politics of scoping in Canadian oil and gas project reviews

Keywords: impact assessment, cumulative effects, oil and gas, fossil fuel, energy regulation, energy justice, energy geography, spatial politics, climate responsibility, Canada, Indigenous rights
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Decisions about whether to approve fossil fuel projects have major implications for climate change, biodiversity, and Indigenous rights. In Canada, cumulative effects assessment is still not required: each project is reviewed individually on its own terms. In this paper we investigate how fossil fuel companies strategically define project boundaries to facilitate approval. Analyzing applications to Canadian federal review bodies over the past 20 years, we ask: in what ways have oil and gas proponents actively constructed scale through their project plans – with what consequences for regulatory scrutiny? Through careful reading of project applications, hearing documents, and company websites, we identify three strategies: 1) splitting work on the same infrastructure into separate applications; 2) incrementally expanding a network without overall review; and 3) portraying interdependent facilities as stand-alone projects. These tactics are within the law, yet they narrow the scope of issues that regulatory bodies assess, while making it more onerous for affected communities to participate in multiple reviews. Three case studies demonstrate how regulators exempted smaller projects from more rigorous assessments, deemed cumulative effects assessment unnecessary because smaller projects were anticipated to have only ‘negligible’ lasting impacts, and excluded from discussion broader impacts on climate change and successive encroachment on Indigenous lands. Our findings contribute to theoretical work on the relational nature of space and scale, decolonial critiques of Canada’s environmental governance, and efforts to advance climate justice by articulating how the legal geographies of energy projects shape responsibility for climate action.