British Columbia

VANCOUVER - A group of environmentalists and B.C. First Nations opposed to Arctic oil exploration are protesting a multinational oil and gas company's movements through the West Coast's Inside Passage.

International environmental organization Greenpeace says Royal Dutch Shell is transporting its oil-spill-containment vessel, the Arctic Challenger, up B.C.'s coastline to the Aleutian Peninsula in Alaska.

Almost six months after the B.C. government approved construction of the Site C dam, BC Hydro is still waiting for the province to issue the dozens of permits needed before shovels can touch the ground.

The permits have been held up because the province needs to conduct “meaningful consultation” with the Treaty 8 Tribal Association on the hydroelectric project.

This 3.5 min video interview with the long-serving President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs touches on the Petronas LNG proposal, opposition to the Site C Dam and being arrested on Burnaby Mountain protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Grand+Chief+Stewart+Phillip+explains+pow...

. . . Seven major projects worth an estimated $9 billion – including an LNG facility, a gravel mine, an industrial waste energy plant, a ski resort, and housing developments for an estimated 10,000 new residents – are proposed on the shores of Howe Sound.

Last week, I held a press conference with Harold Steves, former NDP MLA and a founder of the Agricultural Land Reserve, speaking out against the B.C. Liberal Site C dam. This project is not only a human-rights violation—depriving people of the right to food and water—but breaks Treaty 8 itself and, if constructed, will also be a contravention of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

New evidence proves the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline presents a grave threat to the City of Vancouver’s health, economy and environment, said Mayor Gregor Robertson.

The city commissioned expert reports on the potential impacts of the $5.4 billion proposal and the findings were presented to council on Wednesday.

“Today we heard overwhelming evidence that the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal and the oil tankers associated with it are incredibly disastrous for Vancouver,” said Robertson outside council chambers after the meeting.

Note: Several Canadian law professors issued this joint statement May 26, 2015:

We write as professors of law at several Canadian law schools to recognize and commemorate the May 26, 2015 release of Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s Assessment of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline and Tanker Expansion (“TMEX”) Proposal(the “Assessment”).

In an old legend from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, a two-headed serpent brings hunger and disease to the Burrard Inlet, killing off the salmon. In order to survive, the people had to confront the serpent and slay it.

“We’re now facing another long dragon that needs to be slain,” Tsleil-Waututh Sacred Trust Initiative member Rueben George told a crowd of 100 gathered at Whey-ah-Wichen Park in North Vancouver on Tuesday.

“That’s the Kinder Morgan pipeline.”

When the federal government announced its plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, it gave little indication how it planned to do it, exactly.

Canada produced 749 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005, according to Environment Canada data. By cutting 30 per cent, the Conservative government is hoping to eliminate more than 200 MT a year.

So, just how doable is that?

A new report on liquefied natural gas prospects for British Columbia challenges government claims that gas exports will lower greenhouse gas emissions, or generate $100 billion in profits for the province.

The report published today by David Hughes, one of Canada's foremost energy analysts and a former federal government geoscientist, also contends that the provincial government has vastly overestimated the amount of gas available for export.