Energy and Climate Change

VANCOUVER—The federal Cabinet’s approval of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal is no guarantee that the controversial project will ever be built, environmental groups said today.

“Eighteen months of regulatory hearings made one thing clear: Northern Gateway is a risky and unnecessary project that does not serve the national interest of Canada or Canadians,” said Ecojustice staff lawyer Barry Robinson. 

Living Oceans delivered a scathing rebuke of the federal government’s announcement today on tanker safety. 

“Most of this is not news,” said Karen Wristen, Executive Director. “What is new is bad news for taxpayers.”

Living Oceans today released a report that examines the major threats to whale recovery posed by plans to increase in oil tanker traffic on Canada’s Pacific coast. Justified in the Circumstances: Whales or Supertankers? states that in order to protect whales as required by the Species at Risk Act, neither the Northern Gateway nor the Trans-Mountain pipeline and tanker projects can proceed.

VANCOUVER—Environmental groups have launched a lawsuit to block Cabinet approval of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. The Joint Review Panel’s (JRP) final report, the groups say, is based on insufficient evidence and does not satisfy the environmental assessment process.

Vancouver, B.C.—First Nations, environmentalists and representatives from northern communities held a press conference today in response to the 209 conditions on the Enbridge pipeline announced yesterday by the Joint Review Panel (JRP).

“The JRP’s conditions are so flawed they are to be ridiculed,” said Gerald Amos, Chair of the Wild Salmon Coalition, introducing today’s session. “They do nothing to protect communities, the land, and the ocean from a catastrophic oil spill, and the people of B.C. will not let this pipeline be built.”