Energy and Climate Change

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.”

CALGARY, ALTA.—The Joint Review Panel’s recommendation to approve the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is a major setback for science and democracy in Canada, Ecojustice lawyers said today.

“We submitted hundreds of pages of scientific evidence on behalf of our clients that lead to one emphatic conclusion: The Northern Gateway pipeline is an unsafe, unsustainable and unnecessary project, and it does not serve the national interest of this country,” said Ecojustice staff lawyer Barry Robinson.