Tag Archives: Ecojustice

Energy

Court challenge dropped after Chevron surrenders offshore oil and gas permits in B.C. ocean conservation hot spots

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environmental groups have dropped a court case against Chevron Canada after it surrendered a number of historical oil and gas permits posing risks to sensitive marine conservation areas on the B.C. coast. 

Chevron voluntarily gave up 19 permits in the Scott Islands marine National Wildlife Area north of Vancouver Island and in rare protected glass sponge reefs in Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound.

The fossil fuel giant made the announcement after the David Suzuki Foundation and World Wildlife Fund Canada, represented by the legal charity Ecojustice, launched a court challenge disputing the permits in July 2022. 

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Energy

Challenge to federal law that poses ‘existential threat’ to Alberta goes to Supreme Court

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Supreme Court of Canada this week will examine whether the federal law that evaluates the impacts of proposed resource projects is unconstitutional.

The Impact Assessment Act (IAA) looks into the environmental, health and economic impacts of proposed resource projects — like pipelines and mines — and came into force in 2019 when the federal government passed Bill C-69.

Soon after, the Alberta government brought a legal challenge against the law and its regulations, arguing it was federal overreach encroaching on provincial jurisdiction. The Alberta Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the provincial government in May 2022, calling the IAA an “existential threat” to the provincial right to control and develop resources.

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Energy

ExxonMobil cuts bait on exploration rights for B.C. coast

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fossil fuel giant ExxonMobil is relinquishing its long-standing oil and gas exploration permits that threaten sensitive marine ecosystems on the B.C. coast — a heartening development, a coalition of environmental groups say. 

The move by the oil and gas company is encouraging, say the groups waging a lawsuit against the federal government over historical “sleeper” permits that expose B.C. waters — and marine protected areas in particular — to environmental threats from exploratory drilling. 

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Forests

Greenwashing complaint filed against Canada’s biggest certifier of sustainable forestry

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canadian environmental groups have levelled another greenwashing complaint — this time at the largest certification scheme for sustainable forestry in North America.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certifies 115 million hectares of forest within Canada’s borders for companies.

In a complaint filed to Competition Bureau Canada, environmental groups allege the SFI’s claims of sustainability are “false and misleading” because it has “no rules requiring that logging meet prescribed sustainability criteria nor any on-the-ground assessment to confirm sustainability.”

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Opinion, Politics

When is “Toxic” …Not?

Originally published on the Watershed Sentinel

By Delores Broten

We’ve seen this movie so many times before. Laws are proposed, and sound fine for health and the environment, but the details can render the whole effort worthless. (Buy me a beer and I can recount countless examples.) In this case, the removal of one word can open Canada’s premier environmental law to endless litigation and another fifty years of turtle walk on toxic chemicals.

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