Dimitri L.: This is Dimitri Lascaris for The Real News in Vancouver, British Columbia. I'm here today with Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer with the West Coast Environmental Law Group. Eugene specializes in aboriginal and natural resources law. Thanks very much for joining us today.
Eugene Kung: Thank you for having me.
Dimitri L.: Eugene, why don't you just start by telling us a little bit about West Coast Environmental Law. What does the organization do? What is the nature of the practice?
A Federal Court case has cast the spotlight on a hereditary tribal leader’s battle against a liquefied natural gas project in northern British Columbia.
Donnie Wesley argues that he has the rightful claim to be recognized as hereditary head chief of the Gitwilgyoots tribe – one of nine allied tribes of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is challenging Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on Kinder Morgan. On Tuesday, Premier Notley declared that no NDP/Green government or First Nations objections would stop its construction, saying, "Mark my words, that pipeline will be built, the decisions have been made."
New B.C. government would have a few tools to slow down construction of new oil export pipeline
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Kinder Morgan is signing contracts with construction companies and plans to start building its new $7.4-billion pipeline in September. At the same time, a new NDP-Green party partnership could form government in B.C. and start acting on election campaign promises to kill the project.
Both the company and the politicians made announcements on Tuesday making it clear they are not backing down in this fight.
An NDP government in B.C. could stop the Ottawa-backed expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion by bogging the controversial project down in the courts until it is too costly for the company or politically risky for the federal Liberal government, experts say.
Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.’s shares tumbled in the company’s public debut as new risks threatened to stall a major pipeline expansion to Canada’s West Coast.
Houston-based Kinder Morgan, which aims to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline, raised $1.75-billion in the biggest initial public offering in the energy sector in more than two years.
But shares in the company’s Canadian unit immediately fell on Tuesday as investors weighed possible impacts of a minority government led by British Columbia’s New Democratic Party on the $7.4-billion expansion.
Four-day walk against Trans Mountain expansion finishes in Burnaby.
Several hundred people rallied at the gates of Kinder Morgan’s terminal in Burnaby on Sunday at the conclusion of four-day walk against fossil fuel expansion.
Some of the marchers, including federal Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, embarked on a full 75-km journey from Victoria, while others joined at various stops along the way.
