The European Union has backed off a plan to label oil from Alberta's oilsands as dirtier than other oils and to make it harder to import.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, published a proposal early Tuesday that removes one of the biggest hurdles that was standing in the way of Canada exporting its oil directly to Europe, something that isn't currently happening in any significant way.
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The move comes at a time when tensions are rising between Europe and its top oil supplier, Russia.
The National Energy Board (NEB) just rejected Enbridge’s request for permission to restart its Line 9 pipeline until further notice.
It turns out that Enbridge has failed to meet one of the most important and basic safety requirements – providing proof that there are emergency shut-off valves on both sides of all major water crossings along the pipeline’s route.
The Federal Court of Appeal has granted leave to the Gitxaala Nation to apply for judicial review of the Northern Gateway pipeline project's approval.
The Gitxaala is challenging the federal cabinet's approval of the Enbridge project.
The court application argues that the federal Conservative cabinet did not consider the Gitxaala's aboriginal rights and title in approving the oil pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge.
Kinder Morgan's pipeline work on Burnaby Mountain has been left in the legal lurch, following a National Energy Board decision on the company's request for an access order.
Before deciding, the board is asking Kinder Morgan to file a "notice of constitutional question," – a notice, also sent to the Canada's attorney generals, outlining the company's legal argument.
Kinder Morgan was asking the NEB for an access order that would have effectively nullified the city's bylaw against cutting trees in a public park.
Freshly fed with a wild salmon feast and stirred by drumming and anti-oilsands proclamations, a crowd of several hundred stood en masse to loudly sing Tsleil-Waututh Nation's anthem on Sunday.
Roughly 500 people crammed into the First Nation's North Shore community centre on the eve of what the band's culture and language manager Gabriel George dubbed an "historic event" -- the signing of an intertribal treaty against Kinder Morgan's proposed pipeline through southern B.C.
Treaty makes Kinder Morgan Expansion Project illegal in Coast Salish Law
COAST SALISH TERRITORY, NORTH VANCOUVER, BC; SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 – Today, First Nations from the lower mainland, Vancouver Island, and Washington State have come together to sign an historic treaty to protect the Salish Sea from tar sands oil and related threats, making the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion Project illegal under Coast Salish Law.
For immediate release: On September 8, the City of Burnaby filed a Civil Claim against Kinder Morgan, seeking an injunction to restrain Kinder Morgan from continuing to carry on works in the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area in contravention of the city of Burnaby’s bylaws. The Burnaby Parks Regulation Bylaw prohibits the cutting of trees and damage to the park. Kinder Morgan workers entered the park on September 2, and cut down trees and bushes to allow for helicopter and drilling activities. Kinder Morgan ignored an Order from the City to cease bylaw contraventions.
Kinder Morgan’s attempts to continue its disputed Trans Mountain exploratory pipeline work at Burnaby Mountain faced another day of heated opposition -- this time by an impromptu gathering of 50 residents.
The company maintains its work is legal, but the City of Burnaby and a Member of Parliament do not.
“I never cease to be amazed at what this company does in pursuit of its pipeline project,” said Burnaby—Douglas M.P. Kennedy Stewart in a statement.
The battle between the City of Burnaby and Kinder Morgan over the extension of the Trans Mountain pipleline is heating up after municipal officers issued stop work orders to crews surveying the pipeline's proposed route under Burnaby Mountain on Tuesday.
Energy giant Kinder Morgan wants to bore a hole under the mountain in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby to Burrard Inlet as part of a proposal to nearly triple the capacity of the existing pipeline, but the city has vowed to block the project however it can.
