Yesterday, the government of British Columbia joined Indigenous peoples, community groups, cities, climate activists, and thousands of others in opposing the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain tar sands pipeline.
Despite this, and despite their campaign promise to the contrary, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government are proceeding with a review of the pipeline that ignores climate change, silences communities, and refuses to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples.
In a final written submission to the National Energy Board (NEB) on Monday, the provincial government announced it would not support the hotly-debated proposal based on Kinder Morgan’s failure to prove it would meet stringent "world leading" oil spill safety requirements.
Media Statement: January 8, 2016
Final Arguments on Trans Mountain Pipeline Hearings Submitted by Andrew Weaver
For Immediate Release
Victoria, B.C. - Today Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay Gordon Head and Leader of the B.C. Green Party submitted his Final Argument in the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Hearing Process.
On the surface, the Sturgeon refinery project has just about everything Albertans would hope for as their economy sputters.
It will create jobs by processing scads of gooey crude from the oil sands into diesel fuel. It has long-term bitumen supply agreements with the province and one of Canada's largest oil companies.
Its carbon emissions will be piped away for use in old oil reservoirs to help produce leftover crude rather than vented into the atmosphere. That fits well with the province's new climate framework.
~~Legal observers say that while TransCanada Corp. appears to have a strong case under the North American free-trade agreement to challenge Washington’s rejection of its Keystone XL pipeline, the Calgary-based company has just embarked on a long-haul process in which it remains an underdog.
METRO VANCOUVER -- As the federal review of Kinder Morgan’s $6.8-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion nears its end, at least a dozen First Nations continue to say the review is flawed, and they oppose the project over its potential environmental effects.
Those effects, they say, include the risk of tanker spills in Burrard Inlet.
Barring intervention in the review process by the new federal government under Justin Trudeau, these First Nations are prepared to take their fight to the courts.
One of the most important reports submitted to the National Energy Board’s review of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion has been denied, according to a biologist with one of the hearing’s intervenors.
Last weekend, Canada signed onto a global climate agreement that ushered in a new chapter for this global movement. We are at a potential turning point away from fossil fuels -- but only if Canada keeps its promises, increases ambition, and comes up with a plan to keep fossil fuels, starting with the tar sands, in the ground.
When it comes to the proposed Trans Mountain expansion in British Columbia, ''confidence is actually growing,'' Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean told investors on a conference call Dec. 8.
"We also had, of course, a government changeover up there, and we're in communication with the new government to understand what, if any, additional process will be required,'' Kean said from a boardroom in Houston. ''But we're hopeful that that can be managed within the existing timeframe that we're working with.''
