[ericmacm]

The approval of Bay du Nord was inevitable after the 2020 Federal Regional Impact Assessment for offshore NL drilling concluded that oil extraction from 100 potential new wells in the area over 10-12 years was not going to produce significant GHG impacts (within the scope of drilling, broader downstream GHG emission contributions were not included since it's hard to quantify). It was also considered unlikely to result in a catastrophic blowout or spill given that industry standards have already lowered the risk of these incidents as much as reasonably practicable.

We will likely see more of these projects crop up and gain approval in the near future.