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Kinder Morgan report raises questions that make pipeline approval impossible

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 3, 2016

Victoria, B.C.—Sierra Club BC released the following statement from campaigns director Caitlyn Vernon.

“The report by the ministerial panel, released today by Natural Resources Canada, highlights the failures of the NEB process and raises a series of crucial questions for cabinet’s consideration.

“These questions make approval impossible.

“In answer to the panel’s question about climate change, the science is clear: building this pipeline would make it impossible to meet Canada’s climate commitments. You can’t build pipelines and be a climate leader.

“Regarding the panel’s question about how cabinet could square approval with a federal commitment to reconciliation with First Nations, the answer can be found in the numerous First Nations who firmly oppose this project.

“The panel also raises the question of how cabinet can be confident in an assessment based in a process full of flaws, both the NEB process and the ministerial panel meetings themselves.

“The panel asks—given recent spills and the inadequacy of spill response—whether this pipeline and tankers project is worth the risk.

“They also note the evidence presented to the NEB that the project would have significant impact on southern resident killer whales that are protected under the federal Species at Risk Act.

“This panel was no remedy for a flawed NEB process, and this report does not provide the basis for a federal cabinet approval.

“Approving this project would be abandoning our commitment to real climate action, imposing a death sentence on the southern resident orca population and inviting ecological and economic disaster in the form of an inevitable tanker spill.

“If cabinet takes these questions seriously and bases its decision on the best available science, there is no way this pipeline will be built.”

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See attached backgrounder for a summary of flaws in the ministerial panel processes.

 

Contact:

Tim Pearson

Director of Communications, Sierra Club BC

250-896-1556

tim@sierraclub.bc.ca

 

Backgrounder:

The problems that Sierra Club BC and other organizations have identified with the ministerial panel’s approach include the following:

Lack of clear mandate

  • Panel had no mandate to make recommendations based on their findings, and therefore no clarity for participants on how the government would use the information it compiled, how it would be compiled, or how it might impact Cabinet decision-making.

Inadequate outreach to key participants

  • Some local First Nations leaders and municipal officials only heard about the meetings through Facebook and other unofficial channels, while others were informed on short notice.
  • Meetings of “experts” were scheduled, but no outreach was made to experts who had concerns about the project. They were left to self-identify.

Panelist conflict of interest/perception of bias

  • Panel Chair Kim Baird had a past business relationship with the proponent, was a registered LNG lobbyist, and penned a pro-pipeline op-ed in a national newspaper while the panel process was underway.

Unreasonable, late stage interference in submissions process

  • Approximately 55,000 people submitted comments and letters, but 2 days before the comment deadline, the Panel sent letters to numerous individuals and citizens’ groups that said they would not consider repetitive letters initiated by third parties. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association found this “dismissal is an unreasonable interference in expression of freedom of individuals and their participation in a public consultation process.” After the BCCLA letter, the NEB reversed its decision, but the experience left participants with a continued sense of government bias against citizens opposed to the proposal.

Poor Meeting Organization

  • Meetings were announced on short notice in the middle of summer. The online process to register was cumbersome and a deterrent to participation.
  • Locations in many communities were difficult to access and no provisions were made to make access easier. Due to time and room capacity limitations, hundreds of attendees were not able to participate.
  • No translation was available for French-speaking participants until the last 2 days of meetings.
  • No official records (no stenographer or audio-video recordings) were taken and the Panel’s mandate was broad and poorly defined, amplifying concerns of process bias.

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Kinder Morgan faces wall of opposition in BC

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When the Canadian government decided to throw together last-minute public meetings on the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline during the height of summer, they seemed to hope the meetings would float serenely under the radar.

Packed Victoria town hall on August 23. Photo by Kat Zimmer.

Packed Victoria town hall on August 23. Photo by Kat Zimmer.

The meetings were poorly promoted and the timelines were inadequate to allow people to properly prepare presentations. The locations weren’t clear and the meeting structure and online process to register were unwieldly and off-putting. Several meeting dates changed and more dates were added due to an outcry about some communities being excluded. The meetings had an ad hoc feel and it wasn’t clear to anyone how the government would use the information it compiled, or even how it would be compiled. Local First Nations told us they heard about the meetings only because organizations such as Sierra Club B.C. alerted them.

Despite all this, it was genuinely inspiring and heartening to see a passionate determination on the part of ordinary citizens to have their voices heard and to stand up for this coast. About 400 people showed up to the Victoria public meeting, many driving several hours to be there. Yet more than 100 people were shut out of the room, denied their chance to be heard.

In all the meetings, 418 people were opposed, with only 39 speaking in favour – a decisive 91.4 per cent against Kinder Morgan’s proposal. In addition, 17 First Nations were opposed, as were 21 local governments.

Over 100 people were shut out of the Victoria town hall. Photo by Kat Zimmer.

100+ people shut out of the Victoria town hall. Photo by Kat Zimmer.

 

The federal government had billed these meetings as an effort to compensate for the multiple shortcomings of the original National Energy Board hearings. The NEB recommended approval of the pipeline and tankers proposal despite widespread opposition.

Sources close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau say he is determined to approve a pipeline – and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain is the likeliest candidate. We can’t let the federal government use this latest panel to provide an air of legitimacy to the NEB’s deeply flawed process.

Prime Minister Trudeau has said that “governments grant permits, communities grant permission”. With each of the meetings along the pipeline and tanker route, it became more and more clear that permission has not been granted. British Columbians prefer a commitment to real Sunny Ways, without the fossil fuel haze and economic malaise of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

The public meetings provide the Prime Minister with an excellent opportunity to make a change in policy direction. His government now has community backing to drop its support for Kinder Morgan and bring Canada’s economic policy into alignment with his commitments on climate. Their mandate to move boldly and decisively on climate and the economy has been confirmed. The climate math is strikingly simple: It is not possible to be a climate leader and build tar sands pipelines.

Saying no to Kinder Morgan would be to say yes to our Paris climate commitments, to protection of BC’s environment and economy from the threat of catastrophic pipeline and tanker spills and to repositioning BC and Canada as job-growth leaders in the emerging renewable energy economy.

VIDEO: Victoria environmental roundtable on August 23, courtesy of Ed Johnson at the Saanich Report

At 4:40, our climate & energy campaigner Larissa Stendie takes on the impossibility of spill response and the panel’s bias.

At 19:00, our campaigns director Caitlyn Vernon talks about the climate change implications of the pipeline.

 

Featured image (Top): Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps spoke at a large, peaceful action outside the Victoria townhall organized by Sierra Club BC, Wilderness Committee, and Greenpeace. Photo by Kat Zimmer.

 

Sierra Club BC’s Google Earth Tool Shows Vancouver Island Old-growth in State of Emergency

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September 28, 2016 – Eighty per cent of delegates attending the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention have passed a motion to protect old-growth forests on Vancouver Island from logging. They have further resolved that the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) write to the BC government calling for an amendment to the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan to protect the remaining old-growth forest on provincial Crown land. Sierra Club BC campaigns director made the following statement on the resolution:

“We commend and support all of the municipal leaders, business leaders, and community champions who are speaking up for the ecological and economic values of big old trees. Today’s vote shows that communities all across this province understand that Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth rainforest is a global treasure, and that its protection is a provincial responsibility.

We will continue to work together with our allies to protect Vancouver Island’s remaining old-growth rainforest, and call on the provincial government to update the Vancouver Island land use plan to include consideration of climate impacts and Aboriginal title and rights.”

Sierra Club BC’s Google Earth Tool Shows Vancouver Island Old-growth in State of Emergency

We have developed a Google Earth file that shows old-growth coastal rainforest has reached a state of ecological emergency across vast parts of Vancouver Island and B.C.’s South Coast. (See below for instructions on how to use the file.)

The Google Earth file, which can be studied with free Google Earth software, shows how little ancient forest is left as a result of decades of industrial logging.

The Google Earth file reveals that almost half (46 per cent) of the landscape units now have less than 30 per cent of productive old-growth remaining.  (Landscape units are areas of land used for long-term forest planning, usually 50,000 to 100,000 hectares.) Seventeen per cent of the landscape units have less than 10 per cent productive old-growth rainforest remaining.

Large part of the Walbran remains intact. Photo by TJ Watt

A large part of the Walbran remains intact. Photo by TJ Watt.

Experts consider 30 per cent the threshold for ‘high ecological risk’ of loss of species. With climate change exerting additional pressure, endangered species such as the Marbled Murrelet are experiencing compounding stresses and are threatened with extirpation or extinction.

Sierra Club BC is calling for immediate action by the provincial government to protect and restore endangered coastal rainforest ecosystems, before intensifying climate impacts like drought, wildfires and storms coupled with destructive logging practices further exacerbate pressure on ecosystems.

Remaining largely intact rainforest areas, such as the Central Walbran and the Klaskish River/East Creek need immediate conservation steps to save habitat for endangered species and restore second-growth forest to allow for connectivity.

Unless the provincial government changes course and protects what remains of our endangered old-growth, much of the southern coast could turn into an ecological wasteland this century. We must protect and restore our rainforests now, for species, for clean air, clean water, long term forestry jobs and as one of the world’s most efficient carbon sinks.

How to use the Sierra Club BC Google Earth file

Explore how the software works, download and install the free version of Google Earth: http://www.google.com/earth/

Download the Sierra Club BC Google Earth file (you don’t have to make a Dropbox account to access the file).

Open the file and zoom into the 155 landscape units of Vancouver Island and South Coast (landscape units are areas of land used for long-term forest planning, usually 50,000 to 100,000 hectares).

The Google Earth file (and the Sierra Club BC map) shows the remaining percentage of productive old-growth for all landscape units on Vancouver Island and the South Coast. These are rainforest ecosystems that typically grow relatively big trees (good and medium productivity forest) and store record amounts of carbon, but are also of high interest for logging.

GEfile0

The file reveals that almost half (46 per cent) of the landscape units now have less than 30 per cent of productive old-growth remaining.  Seventeen per cent of the landscape units have less than 10 per cent productive old-growth rainforest remaining. For more information read our backgrounder.

If you click into one of the landscape units, a box shows up with the following information: name of the landscape unit, the total number of hectares of forest in it (some of the area could be non-forest like wetlands etc.), the number of hectares covered by productive forest (good and medium productivity), the number of hectares that remain old-growth, as well as the corresponding % value.

The Google Earth file also shows boundaries of parks (this allows to distinguish areas that are protected from unprotected areas within a landscape unit, for example in the Walbran). This layer can be found in the “Primary database”under “More” (second item; see lower left corner of the first screenshot on this page)

Here is an example:  The Walbran landscape unit contains 30,380 hectares of forest, 27,634 hectares are productive forest (good and medium productivity), 19,576 hectares remain old-growth (71%), which makes the Walbran landscape unit the only one remaining in the entire South Coast with this amount of productive, intact old-growth forest.

walbran screen

We can’t do this work without you! Please donate to help us protect Vancouver Island’s last remaining old-growth.

New Report Calls for Climate Test

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Climate change is the most pressing environmental issue of our age, yet the provincial government keeps adding fuel to the fire by ignoring the carbon footprint of proposed projects like the Kinder Morgan pipeline or various LNG proposals.

This week, Sierra Club BC released a report, written by University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, detailing how British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment (EA) process fails to consider climate change.

Blind Spot: The Failure to Consider Climate Change in British Columbia’s Environmental Assessments recommends a set of urgently-needed policy changes to ensure proposed projects are assessed on the basis of a scientifically valid climate test.

Tell the B.C. Government we need climate action now!

What is a Climate Test?

A “climate test” will test proposed energy projects against their impact on our climate.  This will involve consideration of the proposals’ emissions, from extraction to transportation to eventual consumption, and whether there are more climate-friendly alternatives. If a proposal doesn’t meet the test, it doesn’t go ahead.

We need B.C. environmental assessments that consider climate impacts. Tell the provincial government to put industrial projects to the test.

Today, the vast majority of B.C. environmental assessments only consider emissions from constructing, operating and decommissioning a project. Assessments ignore the effects of extracting fossil fuels such as tar sands oil or natural gas (upstream impacts) and they ignore the emissions resulting from burning these fuels outside of B.C. (downstream impacts).

In addition, although the Province has legislated targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, environmental assessments need not fully apply those targets, rendering the legislation little more than empty rhetoric.

Blind Spot makes specific policy recommendations to ensure B.C. can achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and meet the challenge posed by climate change. The recommendations are relevant to other provincial and federal review processes as well. They include automatic triggers, consideration of upstream and downstream impacts, and withholding approval for projects that would breach legislated emissions reduction targets.

To defend ourselves from the impacts of climate change we need policy with teeth. Sierra Club BC calls on all levels of government—and in particular all parties during the current election campaign—to incorporate a climate test into environmental assessments.

Read the media backgrounder.

Read the full report.

Dying to stop Kinder Morgan

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Kinder Morgan's proposal is not worth these risks to our ecology, economy or our health

Kinder Morgan’s proposal is not worth these risks to our ecology, economy or our health

On Sunday, Aug 16, Galen, Gary, Larissa, Jens and some adventurous volunteers headed to Vancouver’s English Bay to capture the attention of Sunday beach-goers with some dramatic street theatre.

There were two people in hazmat suits, while the rest of the group coughed and hacked and eventually “died” to show the effects of an oil spill from the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline.

“We were drawing attention to a recent report commissioned by Metro Vancouver that said that a potential oil spill in the metro Vancouver area could expose up to a million people to  unsafe levels of benzene.”

The creative demonstration was introduced by Tsleil-Waututh councilor, Charlene Aleck.

Tseil-waututh councillor Charlene Aleck speaking to the media.

Tseil-waututh councillor Charlene Aleck speaking to the media.

From the Vancouver Sun: “If you’re on the seawall enjoying your day and there’s 400 tankers coming through here, you can rest assured that the likelihood of an accident is very, very high over 50 years,” climate and energy campaigner Larissa Stendie bellowed through a loudspeaker.

While she spoke, volunteers lay immobile on the ground beside brightly coloured pieces of paper with messages like “Was just tanning, now I can’t breathe” and “Coma coming on.” Two men in yellow haz-mat suits roamed the area, drawing chalk outlines around “dead” volunteers lying on the pavement.”

Report estimates 79-87% risk of a spill over 50 years

Report estimates 79-87% risk of a spill over 50 years

After the event, the team rounded up signatures for our climate action petition which calls for the Province to withdraw from the National Energy Board review of Kinder Morgan’s proposal and conduct an independent review.

Read more about our climate action recommendations and sign the petition today.

NEB review of Trans Mountain dangerously flawed

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With friends like the National Energy Board, does Kinder Morgan really need enemies?

Sierra Club BC has released a report entitled Credibility Crisis that documents a litany of flaws in the NEB’s review of Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline and tanker project.

Sierra Club BC are calling for B.C. to withdraw from the federal review of the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline and initiate a B.C. environmental assessment. Sign the petition today.

These flaws are so extensive and serious that a massive legal cloud already hangs over Kinder Morgan’s proposal.  The NEB’s approval will be vulnerable to legal challenge on any number of fronts, all because the federal government has turned environmental reviews into elaborate and expensive exercises in rubber-stamping favoured projects. NEB hearings are intended to determine whether or not a given project is necessary and in the public interest.  For over 40 years in Canada, we have made such determinations in public, with public participation, in order to build social license for projects. An open hearing helps the public understand the trade-offs being made among the various economic, environmental, social and cultural values that may be impacted by a project.

Yet the Kinder Morgan hearings are being conducted in the opposite spirit.

Here are some of the flaws the report identifies:

  1. Public participation severely curtailed.
  2. Participants denied adequate and timely funding.
  3. Upstream and downstream impacts, such as climate change, not considered.
  4. Kinder Morgan  allowed to submit incomplete information.
  5. The only evidence subject to cross-examination is First Nations oral evidence.
  6. No cross examination of Kinder Morgan permitted.
  7. Kinder Morgan is allowed to ignore or provide incomplete responses to written Information Requests.
  8. Panel has accepted 80 per cent of the Kinder Morgan’s motions, but only 11 per cent of intervenor motions.
  9. Panel failed to ensure Kinder Morgan’s environmental and risk assessment conformed to accepted best practices.

In short, the federal government has completely stacked the deck in Kinder Morgan’s favour and blocked the public from meaningful participation in the process. Sign the petition calling for B.C. to withdraw from the federal NEB process and conduct an independent environmental assessment that considers climate impacts and gives all British Columbians a voice.

Read the full report.

 

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