Ben West has condemned a National Energy Board decision that opens the door to shipment of an additional 27,000 barrels of oil per day out of a marine terminal in Burnaby.

West, a spokesperson for the B.C. environmental group the Wilderness Committee, says the decision will allow more oil-tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet.

“This never should have been allowed to happen without the consent of the First Nations people and the people of B.C.,” West says in a news release today (December 2).

The board announced yesterday it has approved an application to reallocate oil capacity for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline system.

The decision increases the oil capacity to 79,000 barrels per day from 52,000 at the Westridge Marine Terminal, a crude-oil loading facility in Burnaby.

In the news release, the Wilderness Committee says the decision by the national energy-industry regulator “will mean increases to tanker traffic of at least another 10 tankers a year”.

In its ruling, the National Energy Board notes that other authorities are responsible for the regulation of tanker traffic.