One of the criticisms levelled at Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline to the West Coast is the export of energy to China. Why, critics argue, should we be shipping oil to China rather than supplying domestic crude to Eastern Canada?

Yet, when Enbridge tried to do just that, it was met with an absurd regulatory stumbling block. Even though its Line 9 pipeline from Sarnia, Ont., to Montreal has been in the ground for 35 years, the company was required to go through a National Energy Board review. Public hearings won't even begin until this fall, more than a year after Enbridge started the process.

All Enbridge wants to do is reverse the pipeline's flow to the original direction for which it was designed. The pipeline was built in 1975, at the request of the government, to take western Canadian crude to Montreal refineries. It was reversed 13 years ago to bring imported oil into Ontario.

Because reversing the flow to its original direction basically involves replacing some valves and fittings, the NEB's involvement in a seemingly innocuous business decision of a private company exasperated Alberta Conservative MP Blaine Calkins.

"Does CN come to some regulatory authority to turn a train around on its own track? Do trucking companies come to some regulatory authority to turn their trucks around on the highway? It doesn't make any sense to me at all what business it is for a regulatory agency," said Calkins.

The Line 9 reversal would seem like a no-brainer. It would give Quebec and Atlantic Canada - which currently get 80 per cent of their crude from Europe, Africa and the Middle East - a reliable source of domestic oil.

As with any federal hearing process, taxpayer funding is available to those wanting to appear at the hearings. The NEB has allocated $165,000 under its participant funding program to assist landowners, aboriginal groups, incorporated non-industry not-for-profit and other interested parties to participate in the regulatory process.

Here's hoping this doesn't end up being another proxy war against Alberta's oilsands, such as the one being waged against Enbridge's Northern Gateway by environmental groups with money from foreign trusts.