From NIMBY to NOPE: protecting climate & water from tarsands

From NIMBY to NOPE: protecting climate & water from tarsands

Postby Oscar » Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:27 pm

From NIMBY to NOPE: protecting climate and water from tar sands pipelines

[ https://canadians.org/blog/nimby-nope-p ... -pipelines ]

September 13, 2017 - 2:52 pm

(PHOTO: Ben Gotschall and Andrea Harden-Donahue during the Prairies Energy East speakers tour, April 2015)

I first heard the expression from NIMBY (not in my back yard) to NOPE (not on planet earth) from Ben Gotschall, a rancher and Energy Director with Bold Nebraska. Ben first entered the fight against TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline because it threatened the Ogallala aquifer that his ranch depends on. We brought him to Canada to speak with audiences along the Energy East path in New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan about his journey from protecting his ranch to joining a movement rejecting the expansion of the Alberta tar sands and its impacts on Indigenous communities, our water and climate. [ http://www.nfu.ca/energy-east ]

We brought Ben to help empower people by sharing his experiences working with landowners and Indigenous communities fighting Keystone XL in Nebraska. The four Energy East speakers tours (featuring speakers events, meetings and actions) we organized featured speakers with frontline experience fighting pipelines and having experienced major oil spills, proved critical for
establishing relationships and communication that has since flourished into hubs of resistance to Energy East. [ https://canadians.org/event/atlantic-to ... eir-reward ]

I believe now is the time to ensure we are collectively moving past focusing on any one project.

Indigenous rights need to be respected along all pipeline routes. We must protect drinking water everywhere at a time of increased water pollution and water scarcity. We shouldn’t have to choose between protecting orca’s or right whales, or the health of people living near the port in Vancouver [ http://globalnews.ca/news/3027421/feds- ... n-experts/ ] or the planned oil storage tanks in Red Head, Saint John. [ https://canadians.org/publications/energy-east-gatepost ]

If we stand a chance at getting a 100% clean economy by 2050 – no tar sands pipeline project can proceed.

The upstream emissions of filling Kinder Morgan range from 14 to 17 megatonnes (MT) [ https://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documen ... 15452E.pdf ] while Energy East would be 30-32 million tonnes – and this doesn’t include the downstream impacts of burning the oil. To put this in perspective, Kinder Morgan’s upstream impact would be larger than the annual yearly emissions from the province of New Brunswick and Energy East would be the equivalent of adding more than seven million cars on our roads. [ http://www.pembina.org/media-release/2520 ]

To have a two out of three chance of keeping warming below 2°C, scientists have found we need to half our emissions within 20 years. Keeping to a 1.5°C target would require even steeper cuts. If Canada proceeds with these expansion plans, it could prevent the world from achieving these goals. [ http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2 ... AL-OCI.pdf ]

I believe we need to cross pollinate our opposition to tar sands pipelines, lending strength and solidarity where it is needed. We are in a new reality for organizing faced with strengthened climate policies putting international pressure on the tar sands alongside low oil prices and the distinct challenges presented by the Trudeau and Trump governments.

And we should stop at tar sands pipelines. We need to further push for no new fossil fuel infrastructure, period, given the timeline we face for responding to climate change. This means connecting with our friends fighting fracking [ https://canadians.org/fracking ] and liquefied natural gas proposals [ https://canadians.org/lng ] and the new push for offshore
drilling on Canada's Atlantic coast.

This is where I’ll be putting my effort in the coming weeks. Helping facilitate conversations and action planning to realize this solidarity against these projects we must stop.

Here is an update on where the tar sands pipeline projects stand.

Energy East

(PHOTO: March to the End of the Energy East (pipe)Line, Red Head, May 2015)

We had big news last week with TransCanada (TC) suggesting it may pull the plug. This came in an announcement [ https://www.transcanada.com/en/announce ... lications/ ] requesting a 30 day suspension of the much embroiled National Energy Board (NEB) review of Energy East, TC quite ominously states: “Should TransCanada decide not to proceed with the projects after a thorough review of the impact of the NEB's amendments, the carrying value of its investment in the projects as well as its ability to recover development costs incurred to date would be negatively impacted.”

While Premiers Notley and Gallant quickly came to project’s defence once again [ http://calgaryherald.com/business/energ ... t-pipeline ], I think there is a decent chance Energy East may indeed be coming to an end. The project is facing a tidal wave of challenges. Between climate policies, low oil prices and competing projects potentially moving ahead, the economic argument for this project, the largest tar sands pipeline projects, is getting pretty weak. Critically, Energy East has consistently faced a wall of opposition. From people projecting drinking water in Winnipeg, North Bay and Montreal, to water and land defenders in the Indigenous communities it crosses, to the end of the line where people are fighting against massive oil storage units that put their health and increased tankers in Bay of Fundy waters.

The recent win seeing the NEB including upstream climate pollution impacts of filling the pipeline is a big one. Over 100,000 Canadians sent messages to the NEB demanding this [ https://canadians.org/media/100000-cana ... ng-massive ]. The Council of Canadians was part of this movement, and even had an initial legal challenge to the NEB on the initial failure to include climate impacts. [ https://canadians.org/media/council-can ... ast-ruling ]

Kinder Morgan Rally

(PHOTO: The Vancouver-Burnaby chapter at the #BreakFree shut down of the Kinder Morgan Westridge terminal in Burnaby, May 2016)


The Trudeau government officially approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline (increasing capacity to 830,000 bpd) last November 29th but the project is far from a done deal. The project is facing significant opposition.

There is a new Tiny House Warriors movement seeing Indigenous and allied activists building solar powered tiny houses along the project's path to disrupt it. [ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/08 ... _23202037/ ]

The Federal Court of Appeal will begin a judicial review of the federal government’s approval at hearings in Vancouver from October 2-13. There are 9 legal challenges [ http://environmentaldefence.ca/2017/03/ ... -snapshot/ ] being heard from First Nations, City of Burnaby, and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation & Living Oceans Society and the B.C. The new B.C. NDP government recently won approval to act as an intervenor. The government has also said that Kinder Morgan will not be allowed to begin construction on public lands [ https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/b ... dmail.com& ].

You can donate to First Nations legal challenges here: [ https://pull-together.ca/ ]

On September 9th hundreds flooded the streets of Vancouver yet again to say to Kinder Morgan. [ https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/anti-kinder-morgan-protest/ ]

There is a push for the Port of Vancouver to withhold the remaining permit Kinder Morgan needs to start construction, which could begin on these private lands as early as this month. Media reports construction could begin as early as this month on this private land. Add your name to this petition calling for the Port to withhold the permit. [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=77672 ]

The NEB is holding hearings through the fall and into early 2018 on the pipeline route that present opportunities to further frustrate the project’s progress. For example, the Council of Canadians Chilliwack chapter is part of a group effort to get the pipeline moved away from Chilliwack's schools, wetlands, fault lines, homes, and drinking water. [ https://canadians.org/blog/national-ene ... early-2018 ]

If construction indeed begins there will be on-the-ground resistance.

(PHOTO: Montreal chapter took part in an anti-Kinder Morgan pipeline protest in front of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's constituency office, November 2016)

Keystone XL

(PHOTO: Whitehouse protest)

While President Obama rejected the project [ https://canadians.org/blog/win-obama-re ... l-pipeline ], President
Trump brought the zombie pipeline back to life with his president permit of the 830,000 bpd pipeline (which Prime Minister Trudeau lauded). [ https://canadians.org/blog/trudeau-cele ... l-pipeline ]

Here again, the battle is not over. Nebraska has consistently presented a distinct challenge to this project where Indigenous communities and landowners have fought vigorously to protect their land and water from a tar sands spill.

TransCanada is currently seeking route approval from the Nebraska Public Service Commission [ http://www.psc.nebraska.gov/natgas/Keys ... eline.html ], the commission has until November 13 to make a decision.
At recent hearings over 460,000 public comments calling for the rejection of the pipeline were submitted. Tribal attorneys established [ http://journalstar.com/sides-spar-on-ke ... a38f9.html ] that TransCanada did not properly consult with Yankton Sioux or Ponca, or survey the historic Ponca Trail of Tears and other burial and sacred sites that KXL would cross. Regardless of its decision, opponents said they still expect to wind up in
court over the pipeline, perhaps in eminent-domain battles over efforts to build it on their land.

Meanwhile, groups are mobilizing to build another two solar installations [ http://boldnebraska.org/event/solarxl2/ ] along the proposed pipeline path to power nearby homes and business and underscore the need to center solutions to climate change while rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline and resisting the expansion of the fossil fuel industry.

There is also increasing evidence that the customer base for Keystone XL [ http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/31 ... _23058108/ ] may no longer exist with the focus instead shifting to getting oil to Asian markets more easily reached from the B.C. coast than the U.S. Gulf.

Line 3

Enbridge’s Line 3, arguably the least known of these projects, would replace the existing 390,000 bpd pipeline built in 1968 with a new 760,000 bpd export pipeline able to carry tar sands crude for 50-60 years. Enbridge admits the pipeline would mean 19 to 26 megatonnes of upstream greenhouse gas emissions each year.

Prime Minister Trudeau approved the construction of the new Line 3 in November 2016, construction began this summer in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Wisconsin.

The project was recently dealt a blow when the Minnesota Department of Commerce [ https://canadians.org/blog/minnesota-de ... 3-pipeline ] concluded "that Minnesota would be better off if Enbridge proposed to cease operations of the existing Line 3, without any new pipeline being built." The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will not make its final decision on the pipeline until April 30, 2018.

In Canada [ https://canadians.org/blog/native-ameri ... -intensify ], the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs along with the Ochapowace, Keeseekoose, George Gordon and Pasqua First Nations in Saskatchewan have all
expressed concerns about the pipeline.

The Qu'Appelle Valley Environmental Association (QVEA) in Saskatchewan has stated, "[The Line 3 pipeline] will crisscross fourteen of our watercourses, including our major rivers – tunneling under the South Saskatchewan River, south of Outlook, and under the Qu’Appelle River, near Bethune."

Andrea Harden-Donahue's blog
Energy & climate justice campaigner
[ https://canadians.org/blogs/andrea-harden-donahue ]
Oscar
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