CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Canada is looking at both legislative and regulatory changes in its quest cut the time it takes to approve major energy projects, although rewrites of the acts governing developments are unlikely, the country’s natural resources minister said on Wednesday.

Changes aimed at streamlining regulatory proceedings are likely to start taking shape in the coming months, said Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, who is pushing for speedier approvals after more than 4,000 people registered to comment on Enbidge Inc’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline to the West Coast from Alberta.

“We do have some focused ideas we want to deal with and we’re talking months, not years,” Oliver told reporters.

“It is a matter of deep concern that our regulatory process is not as effective and expeditious as it should be, and so if we’re going to deal with a time issue, we’re going to do it in a timely way.”

Oliver has invited controversy by saying that many of those who signed up to participate in the Northern Gateway hearings were part of foreign-funded radical groups bent on stacking hearings to delay them.

The Joint Review Panel conducting the added about a year to the schedule to accommodate all who wanted to comment.

However, regulatory streamlining has been part of Ottawa’s plans, articulated last summer, to develop an energy strategy aimed at boosting and diversifying oil exports.

VANCOUVER/CALGARY (Reuters) – Canada’s government has a responsibility to make sure people can take advantage of the economic benefits Alberta’s massive oil deposits can generate, the country’s energy minister said on Monday as he once again decried “radicals” bent on stopping Enbridge Inc’s Northern Gateway oil pipeline.

As about 50 protesters demonstrated noisily outside, Joe Oliver, minister of natural resources, said in Vancouver that “environmental and other radical groups” are indiscriminately opposing any and all large industrial projects and are using Canada’s regulatory system as their main battleground.

“They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects,” Oliver said.

Such delays will send investment capital fleeing and sully Canada’s reputation, he warned.

Public hearings into the C$5.5 billion ($5.4 billion)Northern Gateway pipeline to the West Coast from Alberta’s oil sands began this month. More than 4,000 people have registered to comment at the proceedings, which resume in Edmonton Tuesday.

Oliver and other government officials have said many of the green groups opposed to Northern Gateway are funded by foreign interests that want nothing else but to disrupt Canadian trade. He said he plans to find ways to streamline the “unpredictable and needlessly complex” regulatory regime to cut down on the time it takes for approvals.

He made his remarks as a University of Alberta study urged the oil-rich provincial government to forge closer ties with China on its own to bolster energy trade through such export projects as Northern Gateway.

CALGARY, Alberta, Jan 19 (Reuters) – TransCanada Corp (TRP.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) may build a $2 billion southern portion of its Keystone XL oil pipeline first following the initial rejection of the full-blown project, which would mesh with one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s goals but put it in direct competition with another major proposal.

TransCanada had broached the idea of constructing the Gulf Coast expansion part of the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline before as a way to help alleviate an oil glut at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub and get more crude to Texas refineries, but Chief Executive Russ Girling said it has now gained in priority.

“Clearly, with yesterday’s decision, we are now open to amending or changing our plans to build this in segments if that’s what the company and our shippers believe is the right thing to do,” Girling said at an investor conference.

His comments come a day after Washington rejected TransCanada’s application for the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, angering Republican lawmakers who had tried to force an approval and disappointing Canada’s government and oil industry which seek to expand oil sands exports. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For a Keystone pipeline rejection TAKE A LOOK, click on [ID:L1E8CI9E2] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

The project is a flashpoint in the debate between energy security and environmental projection, although Obama said it was not rejected on its merits but on a too-tight deadline set by Congress late last year.

The company plans to reapply to build the controversial 1,661-mile (2,673 km) pipeline and Girling said he believes it could be in service by the end of 2014, assuming it gets a green light in the first quarter of next year.

That puts it past the time when rivals Enterprise Products Partners EDP.N and Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) aim to ship 400,000 barrels a day to the Gulf from Cushing on a reversed Seaway pipeline.