It's been a big year in the campaign to prevent the expansion of US thermal coal exports from BC. We wanted to offer a quick review of recent events and a brief preview of the year to come:
The governing Liberals in BC and Conservatives in Canada insist that jobs, public revenues and economic growth all depend on expanding fossil fuel exports. Christie Clark’s Liberals won the 2013 BC election promising a future of jobs and rising public revenues based on the export of liquified natural gas. Now two years later faced with widespread protests and declining oil and gas prices, no LNG project has proceeded.
The 350 Pacific Climate Warriors paddled out into the Port of Newcastle, followed by hundreds of Australians and came head to head with gigantic coal ships. It truly was David versus Goliath. Words alone are not enough to describe the courage of the Pacific Warriors as they came face to face with the fossil fuel industry. Watch and share the video of this powerful and inspiring action.
In response to the announcement of the approval of permits for the shipment of US thermal coal through Greater Vancouver, the Fraser River, and up the Salish Sea to Texada Island, residents in the region protested by occupying the Sabine Channel on Saturday, October 4.
New Westminster – The City of New Westminster will be submitting an application for Intervener Status with respect to the Federal Court challenge commenced by Ecojustice Canada (formerly known as Sierra Legal Defence Fund) against the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks Coal Transfer Facility.
A local district attorney in Massachusetts surprised parties on all sides on Monday after he sided with two climate justice activists who employed a "necessity defense" to justify their use of a small lobster boat to block the path of an enormous coal freighter trying to dock at the Brayton Point Power Station in the town of Somerset last year.
“I do believe they’re right, that we’re at a crisis point with climate change.” —Bristol County DA Sam Sutter
In the transition towards a post-carbon future, infrastructure built today for fossil fuels could easily become stranded assets which burden investors and taxpayers with sunk costs. The proposal to build coal shipment facilities at Fraser Surrey Docks and Texada Island for U.S.-mined thermal coal is at risk of becoming B.C.’s version of Mirabel Airport in Quebec underused infrastructure built for a future which never arrived.
Port officials in Prince Rupert are watching a bulk carrier very closely, and the Transportation Board of Canada (TSB) have deployed a team to assess the situation, after the ship ran aground late Monday night near the entrance to the harbour on B.C.'s North Coast.
The 228-metre Amakusa Island was about 15 kilometres from Ridley Island, the coal-loading facility south of Prince Rupert.
The Obama administration’s plan to restrict emissions from coal-burning power plants in the United States is expected to intensify an environmental battle that is already under way over coal-port expansion in British Columbia. “I think it has potentially huge implications, because [Obama’s] rules are going to dramatically shrink the market for coal in the States,” Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC), said Monday about the U.S.
B.C.'s Ministry of Energy and Mines is dismissing concerns its decision to approve the expansion of a Texada Island quarry's coal storage facility -- a key component of plans to significantly increase exports of U.S. thermal coal to China -- was improper. The allegation was made by a climate change advocacy group in a judicial review petition filed Monday afternoon in B.C. Supreme Court, which asks the court to rule on whether the correct process was followed by the government.
