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Statement on potential federal approval of Trans Mountain pipeline

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 April 12, 2016

Sierra Club BC’s climate and energy campaigner Larissa Stendie reacts to media reports that the federal government intends to approve Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline:

“When will our governments take a serious look at the global situation and stop bending over backwards to do the bidding of the fossil fuel industry? The governments of Canada and British Columbia claim to be climate leaders, but nothing they’re doing moves us away from catastrophic 4-6⁰C of warming.

“Locking us into unnecessary, expensive, dangerous carbon-heavy infrastructure like the Kinder Morgan pipeline demonstrates that Canada—for all its high blown rhetoric about keeping warming to 1.5⁰C—remains still stuck in old-fashioned, extractive, colonial thinking.

“We risk being left behind as the rest of the world modernizes its approach and shifts to a post-carbon economy.

“The economic arguments for pipelines and for the tar sands just don’t make sense. U.S. pipelines are already taking tar sands oil to southern U.S. refineries at the best global price. A recent report from Oil Change International confirms that shipping tar sands crude to Asia, where it competes with light shale production will not make for better prices.

“In addition, as the world gets tougher on emissions, the tar sands risk becoming stranded assets and pipelines white elephants.

“Clean, green energy and technology now dominates energy market growth. Supporting the necessary shift to a post-carbon economy is the smart, responsible, profitable choice for lasting job creation, resilient communities and thriving ecosystems across the country.

“Nothing in either government’s plans to improve our outdated spill response systems on land and sea can prevent spills from happening, and no technology exists to actually clean it up when it does.

“First Nations, such as the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, recognize this and are fighting in the courts to keep Kinder Morgan out. Residents of Burnaby know all too well what it feels like to have bitumen spilling down their streets. If it can happen there, it can and will happen elsewhere. It is only a matter of time.

“If approving these pipelines is a foregone decision at the federal level, it seems the federal government’s plan for new hearings is just a theatrical production laid on to create the illusion of fair process. Given the scientific evidence and public opposition, is the federal government willing to cause irreparable harm to British Columbia, its communities and its coast by pushing this pipeline on an unwilling province?

“As the world moves to adopt the Paris agreement on Earth Day, government rhetoric must urgently be met with real action to secure a future all Canadians can unite around.”

–30–

 

Original National Post article: http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/john-ivison-trudeau-convinced-that-pipeline-strategy-must-be-top-priority

 

Contact:

Larissa Stendie

Climate and Energy Campaigner, Sierra Club BC

250-891-8245

Featured image by “Maureen” via flickr

We did it! Pull Together Raised $600,000!

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Amazing news, and a major milestone!

Today, the Pull Together campaign reached its fundraising goal of $600,000. Over 15 incredible months of solidarity, people like you have danced, marched, sang, paddled, stretched and eaten together to raise money for seven First Nations facing down Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and tankers in the courts.

A huge thank you to so many Sierra Club BC supporters who organized events, donated, attended and spread the word, showing solidarity with the Nations and helping support their cases.

Today we celebrate Pull Together alongside the Haida, Heiltsuk, Nadleh-Whuten, Nak’adzli, Gitxaala, Gitga’at and Kitasoo- Xai’xais Nations who have taken a strong stance against Enbridge in court.

The solidarity that Pull Together inspired has helped provoke the new government to re-commit to formalizing a moratorium on oil tankers on the north coast, as one of its top priorities.

What a beautiful way to wrap up a momentous year!

Let’s be clear, though: our work isn’t over yet. Enbridge is still fighting to keep its pipedream alive.

While we await the judgement in the First Nations lawsuits that you have so generously supported, send a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau today, to let him know we look forward to seeing a permanent, legislated oil tanker ban passed into law at the earliest opportunity.

Please consider donating to Sierra Club BC today, so we can build upon what we’ve achieved with Pull Together! 

Pull Together infographic

Keystone XL rejected, next up is Enbridge

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Statement from Sierra Club BC’s Campaigns Director Caitlyn Vernon

Keystone Trudeau

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline on the basis of its climate impacts gives hope for a new path forward in British Columbia. Obama has sent a clear message that you can’t be a climate leader and build pipelines, a message that Prime Minister Trudeau cannot ignore.

Today’s rejection signals a growing recognition that tar sands pipelines are not inevitable and a clean energy economy is not just possible it is already here.

We can create more jobs and protect our environment by investing in clean energy and transitioning to a post-carbon economy.

Prime Minister Trudeau can demonstrate real climate leadership by implementing a legislated oil tanker ban for B.C.’s north coast that puts an end to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal for once and for all, and by fulfilling his campaign promise to overhaul the federal environmental review process such that the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal is considered on the basis of its climate impacts.

It’s time for a new approach to pipelines in Canada that takes climate change seriously. Because it’s 2015.

Hundreds Rally Behind First Nations Against Enbridge

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Over 500 people gathered on the steps of the Federal Court of Appeal in Vancouver on Thursday to rally in support of eight First Nations on their first day in court against the federal government.

Lawsuits launched by Haisla, Haida, Kitasoo Xai’xais, Heiltsuk, Nadleh Whut’en, Nak’azdli, Gitga’at and Gitxaala nations, assert that the federal government acted unconstitutionally when it approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines and oil tankers project.

“The federal government has mismanaged the Enbridge file from the beginning,” said kil tlaats ‘gaa Peter Lantin, President of the Haida Nation in a press release from the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC). “We are in court to hold the federal government accountable to the highest law in Canada – the Constitution. We believe they are shirking their duties and responsibilities to First Nations in pursuit of corporate deals and board appointments.”

The rally was organized by UBCIC and the Yinka Dene Alliance and was attended by supporting nations, environmental groups and other allies who want to see the Enbridge pipeline stopped. Many supporters travelled hundreds of kilometres including a huge contingent from Haida Gwaii in particular.

“Today we’re fighting an unlawful environmental assessment and review process that failed to meet its constitutional obligations to First Nations,” said Chief Councillor, Arnold Clifton of the Gitga’at First Nation in the UBCIC press release. “Of the 209 conditions placed on Enbridge by the federal government, not one of them reflected our community’s concerns about the project. We owe it to our children to defend our rights and our way of life from the dangers of oil tanker traffic.”

Sierra Club BC, together with RAVEN trust has been fundraising for these legal challenges through the Pull Together campaign and supported the rally with online promotion, flyering and #UnitedAgainstEnbridge signs.

“These judicial hearings challenge the flaws in the joint review panel process which did not constitute real consultation with First Nations,” says Sierra Club BC outreach coordinator Galen Armstrong. “It’s important to have strong environmental assesments that people can trust, in order that we can make decisions that make sense for our society. These hearings could push Canada back in this direction.”

United Against Enbridge Collage

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.

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