A new wave of oil drilling threatens the Arctic – but today saw the start of the fight back. This morning a lawsuit was filed that could stop the expansion of this reckless industry northwards, and now we need your help to show that what happens in the Arctic matters to everyone everywhere.
Cleanup and salvage efforts have been hampered by storms on the British Columbia coast, where a sunken tug continues to leak fuel 11 days after it ran aground near Bella Bella, in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Matt Woodruff, information officer with the industry-funded unified command group that is handling the operation, said fuel spill containment booms failed at one point, allowing slicks to escape from around the grounded tug, Nathan E. Stewart.
Since the Liberals formed government last November, Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline have lobbied Ottawa an astounding 86 times, federal lobbying reports reveal.
Fifty-one of those meetings have taken place since August — which, funnily enough, is around the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started backtracking on his commitment to ban oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast, a policy that would leave Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal dead in the water.
Since the Liberals formed government last November, Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline have lobbied Ottawa an astounding 86 times, federal lobbying reports reveal.
Fifty-one of those meetings have taken place since August — which, funnily enough, is around the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started backtracking on his commitment to ban oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast, a policy that would leave Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal dead in the water.
HEILTSUK IN SHOCK AS CRITICAL BARRIER
CONTAINING SPILL BREAKS FREE
Bella Bella (October 22, 2016) –– Heiltsuk Chief Marilyn Slett says her community is in a state of shock today as spilled diesel oil has broken free of barriers to contain it and weather worsens.
Is Big Oil trying to game Alberta’s royalty structure with their risky pipeline proposal?
Growing up, I spent a fair amount of time doing puzzles. I liked the simplicity and comfort of knowing each piece had its place and, given time and concentration, I could assemble the image of a unicorn or kittens in a basket that had originally caught my eye.
A little more than a year ago, B.C. activist Ingmar Lee told a reporter that the petroleum-hauling vessel Nathan E. Stewart was a “disaster waiting to happen.”
Early Wednesday morning, that fear was realized when the American-owned articulated tug and barge ran aground near Bella Bella. Although the barge was empty after dropping off its cargo in Alaska, the tugboat began leaking fuel into the water, threatening the traditional clam fisheries of the Heiltsuk First Nation.
“It’s unfortunately a terrible thing to see it sunk there,” Lee said Thursday.
COASTAL FIRST NATIONS RENEWS CALL FOR OIL
TANKER BAN ON BC COAST IN AFTERMATH OF BELLA BELLA SPILL
Vancouver, BC (October 14, 2016) – Coastal First Nations renews its call today for a ban on crude oil tanker traffic and says First Nations must be at the table to determine what went wrong in Thursday’s diesel spill near the Heiltsuk First Nation of Bella Bella, BC.
