The past year has seen communities around the world dealing with major weather events. Here in Canada flooding in Quebec and unprecedented wildfires in BC displaced tens of thousands, while the southern U.S. and South East Asia suffered from intense storms. Forget about polar bears – these communities are the new face of climate change.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe won a significant victory today in its fight to protect the Tribe’s drinking water and ancestral lands from the Dakota Access pipeline.
A federal judge ruled that the federal permits authorizing the pipeline to cross the Missouri River just upstream of the Standing Rock reservation, which were hastily issued by the Trump administration just days after the inauguration, violated the law in certain critical respects.
Due to an absurd legal twist, the new NDP government in B.C. has opposed the Trans Mountain Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion in one courtroom while preparing to defend the expansion in another.
This is an email I hoped to never have to send. Kinder Morgan has started construction on its export terminal in the Burrard Inlet despite tremendous opposition from First Nations and communities all along its route, without support from the BC government and with no real climate considerations. The company is bulldozing ahead with their plans -- and they have the full support of the Trudeau government.
Sheriffs turned up at the downtown Vancouver offices of an environment group on Tuesday to seek about $14,000 in unpaid court costs on behalf of energy giant Enbridge Inc., but within hours, the company backed off.
Other environmental groups rallied around Stand.earth, formerly known as ForestEthics, on Tuesday with statements on social media and phone calls offering help. Enbridge did not explain the swift turnaround.
A Fraser Valley-based conservation group has lodged a formal complaint with the College of Applied Biology over a Trans Mountain biologist’s role in the installation of matting to discourage salmon from spawning at stream sites where the company plans pipeline crossings.
Go to the Stand Facebook page for updates on attempts by Enbridge to have a sheriff to seize assets from the Stand office: https://www.facebook.com/standearth/
