OREANDA-NEWS. Canada's National Energy Board will release a final report on Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain crude pipeline expansion on 20 May, 2016, four months later than previously scheduled.

The review process has been delayed following an NEB decision to strike all evidence prepared by a consultant for the project that has since been appointed to serve on the regulatory panel.

Steven Kelly, with IHS Global Canada, was appointed as a member of the NEB on 28 July. He had previously submitted written evidence in support of the Trans Mountain expansion on behalf of Kinder Morgan.

Kinder Morgan is seeking to twin the existing 300,000 b/d line from Edmonton, Alberta, to Burnaby, in the Vancouver area, area on the Pacific coast. The $5.4bn project also includes increasing the number of storage tanks at existing facilities and adding new pump stations.

The NEB's new schedule for the project, released today, sets a series of hearings in January or February 2016. Those hearings were originally scheduled on 9-30 September 2015 in Burnaby, British Columbia, the center of opposition to the project. Seventy-six individuals were slated to testify, including representatives of several First Nations groups, environmental activists, landowners affected by the pipeline route, and officials from cities including Burnaby and Vancouver. The NEB planned for tight security and limited public access at the proceedings.

The new schedule says that the location of the hearings has not been determined.

Trans Mountain's summary argument to the board was also moved by four months to 17 December 2015.

The city of Burnaby earlier this month asked the NEB to cancel the hearings altogether, saying that the review process has been "irrevocably tainted" by the appointment of Kelly to the agency.

The NEB said that the Trans Mountain hearing panel has taken appropriate action to address the appointment of Kelly by striking the evidence prepared by him from the record. Kelly's appointment to the NEB is effective on 13 October.