Tag Archives: Trans Mountain Pipeline Hearings

Challenging trans Mountain’s 2018 Injunction

Editor’s note: Opponents of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion are challenging a 2018 injunction to prevent protesters from “physically obstructing, impeding or otherwise preventing access” to work sites in Burnaby. Simon Fraser University health sciences professor Tim Takaro says there are two environmentally sensitive streams along the route and inadequate consideration of the pipeline’s climate impact.

Carl Meyer, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Trans Mountain says it was trying to ensure “safe construction” when it removed a peaceful protest site in December along its pipeline route in the Vancouver area.

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BC Reacts To The NEB’s Pipeline Recommendation

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As everyone expected, the National Energy Board (NEB) has recommended that the Canadian Government approve Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion through the most populated area of British Columbia. The NEB believes the likelihood of a major oil spill “very low,” but “the potential significance” of such a spill “very high.” Kinder Morgan would be required to post calculations of the emissions from all industrial activities and those created during construction of the 1150 km (715 miles) pipeline. If the Trudeau Government agrees and the project goes forward, the number of tankers carrying diluted bitumen out of the Greater Vancouver area could increase from 1 or 2 a week to 10. These are some of the ways BC reacts to the NEB’s pipeline recommendation.

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BC Says It Cannot Support Kinder Morgan Pipeline

By Roy L Hales

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The province of British Columbia was not able to respond in time to be part of Monday’s broadcast, “Bitumen Sinks & Is Almost Impossible to Clean Up.” However a Ministry of Environment spokesperson emailed and BC says it cannot support Kinder Morgan Pipeline at this time.

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Bitumen Sinks & Is Almost Impossible to Clean Up

By Roy L Hales

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Prior to his election as Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau promised that the National Energy Board hearings on the proposed Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion would not go forward. We need a new review process, which both focuses on science and seeks social license in the areas where projects like this are being suggested. That changed after his election. The hearings resumed and, sometime before May 20, the National Energy Board is expected to recommend the Trans Mountain project be approved. If the Prime Minister agrees, there will be a seven-fold increase of diluted bitument coming through the most populated area of British Columbia. In anticipation of the proposed pipeline, the province of British Columbia is drawing up legislation for “world-leading provincial spills regime.” This is the backdrop for the ECOreport’s Monday, April 11, program on CKTZ:   Bitumen sinks and is almost impossible to clean up.

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McKenna Asks Canadians To Trust The Government

By Roy L Hales

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The first meeting of what Environment Minister Catherine McKenna calls our “pan-Canadian team on Climate Change” is now over.  She has been closeted with environmental ministers from the provinces and territories, McKenna called it “the most positive meeting that has taken place in a very long time. Though short on details,  the Minister said “We all know we have to act together”and alluded to “real opportunities” in the clean tech sector. To distill her message down to the three words which she did not actually use, McKenna asks Canadians to trust the Government

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