mobanmarketCanada’s National Energy Board (NEB) announced late Thursday that it has found oil giant Kinder Morgan’s planned expansion of a pipeline that transports tar sands oil to the British Columbia coast “in the public interest.”
“The fishing grounds of the Salish Sea are the lifeblood of our peoples. We cannot sit idly by while these waters are threatened by reckless increases in oil tanker traffic and the increased risk of catastrophic oil spills.”
—Mel Sheldon, Tulalip Tribes Chairman
The NEB’s stamp of approval now sends the proposal to the federal government for a final decision.
The outcry was swift.
“The Tulalip Tribes are extremely disappointed with the NEB’s decision to recommend approval of the TransMountain Pipeline. We are facing the very real threat of an oil spill that puts the Salish Sea at risk,” said Mel Sheldon, Tulalip Tribes Chairman, in a statement from environmental law group Earthjustice.
Canadian First Nations, tribes in the U.S. Northwest, and allied environmental groups vowed to continue their years-long battle against the pipeline to save the West Coast’s delicate coastal ecosystem and traditional Indigenous territory—particularly the threatened Salish Sea (pdf), through which oil and coal tankers travel and on which First Nations depend for sustenance fishing.
“The fishing grounds of the Salish Sea are the lifeblood of our peoples,” Sheldon said. “We cannot sit idly by while these waters are threatened by reckless increases in oil tanker traffic and the increased risk of catastrophic oil spills.”
The expansion will increase the capacity of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 barrels a day from 300,000 and “increase the number of tanker trips through the region from about 70 per year to more than 400, raising the prospect of major spills, as well as other social, economic, and environmental impacts,” as Common Dreams has reported.
Deafening tanker traffic noise poses a severe threat to endangered killer whales that traverse the Salish Sea, notes BC-based endangered species advocacy group Raincoast.
The NEB’s approval comes despite years of public outcry against the project, from the 2014 occupation of Burnaby Mountain that blocked the pipeline’s path to this week’s kayaktivist blockade against oil tankers in Vancouver’s harbor.
“The NEB listened politely and then ignored the concerns of U.S. sovereign tribal nations. The recommendation is a slap in the face.”
—Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice attorneyStaunch opposition emerged not only from Indigenous and environmental groups, but also government officials: 38 First Nations, 12 municipalities, and even the provincial government of British Columbia all spoke out against the pipeline expansion to the NEB during its review process, according to testimonies collected by environmental advocacy group Wilderness Committee.
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