A handful of anti-pipeline activists with lock cutters and the will to get arrested have become Canadian oil producers’ newest hurdle to delivering crude to markets.
With the December Paris climate agreement, leaders and experts from around the world showed that they overwhelmingly accept that human-caused climate change is real and, because the world has continued to increase fossil fuel use, the need to curb and reduce emissions is urgent.
Outdated computer systems, inaccurate information and confusion within Canada’s national pipeline regulator is putting public safety and the environment at risk, warns a new audit tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made headlines Tuesday when he met with Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, an outspoken opponent of the proposed Energy East pipeline.
On Saturday, over 200 protestors gathered outside of the Kinder Morgan National Energy Board (NEB) hearings in Burnaby, B.C.
The environmental review hearings for the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline began on January 19, but members of the general public have not been allowed to attend.
"They call this a public hearing, but that's a misnomer," said Burnaby City Councillor Sav Dhaliwal. "There's no public in there. There isn't any. Public hearing without the public…concerned citizens are not allowed to go in there."
As a tense court case resumed Friday morning, the Trudeau government extended an olive branch to a First Nation that accused the federal government of failing to consult them on Kinder Morgan's controversial Trans Mountain pipeline.
The Tsleil-Waututh First Nation also argued in court that the National Energy Board (NEB) erred when it failed to adequately assess the impact of increased tanker traffic, which the nation argues will inevitably lead to a devastating oil spill.
[Website editor's note: This article is a useful summary of provincial emission-reduction policies, or rather the lack thereof.]
Provincial premiers boast leadership in the country’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but achieving their own lofty ambitions will require political courage and aggressive policies to drive fundamental changes in the way Canadians produce and consume energy.
For the past week, as the final round of NEB hearings for the Kinder Morgan pipeline were about to start, hundreds of people took action to enforce the People’s Injunction.
This government campaigned against broken pipeline reviews, yet they are letting the Kinder Morgan and Energy East reviews move forward -- without including impacts on climate change, without listening to communities, and without respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
