This discussion paper summarizes key points of interest or concern with respect to environmental assessment (EA) and how it may relate to oil and gas projects. Environmental assessment law in Canada is complicated, making it difficult to be brief and comprehensive at the same time. The primary focus of this paper is to provide information to identify issues and questions about the federal regime. Some information on the BC regime is provided as well; however, given that the BC government has completely rewritten the provincial Environmental Assessment Act, we believe that federal EA is going to become increasingly important in BC.