Oil - Pipelines

Republican leaders in Congress are planning a legislative offensive to force the White House’s hand on the Keystone XL pipeline decision if the Obama administration does not declare its support for the project in the coming weeks. Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, said Republicans are considering attaching a Keystone decision to a new law to raise the debt ceiling, which may be needed by the end of February for the U.S. to avoid another financial crisis.

Vancouver - U.S. scientists are warning that there are environmental risks, regulatory holes and serious unknowns regarding the shipment of Alberta oilsands products by pipeline, rail and tanker. The findings are in a 153-page report from last September by the emergency response division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The unit has expertise in preparing for, evaluating and responding to oil and chemical spills in coastal environments.

Former Conservative MP Chuck Strahl is stepping down as chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee following an uproar over revelations that he recently registered as a lobbyist for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project. In a statement released to media late Friday afternoon, Strahl said that although he has complied with “all relevant rules and regulations” for ex-MPs, he does “not wish to be in the centre of the political fray. “Nor do I want to be a distraction from the important work SIRC does every day in ensuring the security of Canadians.

The construction of the Keystone XL, a pipeline intended to bring hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of oil from Canada’s controversial oil sands to the United States, has been mired in delays as regulators assess its environmental impact, and activists and landowners protest what they see as one of the nation’s largest environmental thre

. . . the recent spate of rail accidents and pipeline leaks and spills doesn't provide arguments for one or the other; instead, it indicates that rapidly increasing oil and gas development and shipping ever greater amounts, by any method, will mean more accidents, spills, environmental damage — even death. The answer is to step back from this reckless plunder and consider ways to reduce our fossil fuel use.

Back in the olden days of 2011, when America was young and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” was a song that not everyone had gotten sick of yet, one of the most compelling criticisms leveled against the Keystone XL pipeline protesters went like this: There is oil in the Alberta tar sands. Pretty cheap stuff – about $30 less a barrel than what you can buy overseas.

My community is largely based in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, 200 km downstream from current tar sands development. It's a place of great beauty and history, but we are now at risk from irreversible impacts that will permanently change our lands and our lives forever. In July of 2010, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Elders Council issued a declaration on our rights under agreements made over a century ago.

Five environmental groups, including the David Suzuki Foundation and the Wilderness Committee, are taking the federal government to court, claiming it has failed to meet its responsibilities under the Species at Risk Act to protect endangered wildlife threatened by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. The case will be heard by the Federal Court in Vancouver Jan.

With the announcement of the National Energy Board’s ruling in favour of Enbridge’s Northern pipeline, and the fall of yet another government environmental safeguard, the organizers of the anti-pipeline blockade camp in Northern BC are more committed than ever to holding their ground. Along with partner Forest Action Network (FAN), they’ve put out a call for more volunteers, and FAN director Zoe Blunt says they’ve received a flood of applications in the past week from people eager to travel to the camp and help out.

Chuck Strahl, Chairman of the federal body which oversees Canada’s spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), has registered to lobby on behalf of Enbridge’s ‘Northern Gateway Pipelines Limited Partnership’. Two weeks before the December 19, 2013 decision of the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project, Strahl and his firm –