• How do you stop a pipeline when one family owns both the oil and the media?

    How do you stop a pipeline when one family owns both the oil and the media?

    By: Lynaya Astephen, member of Red Head Anthony's Cove Preservation Association, read the original here

    Pipeline opponent’s op-ed rejected by Irving-owned newspaper in New Brunswick

    Editors’ note: Saint John’s Telegraph-Journal refused to publish this op-ed, written by a local resident to explain why over 700 people gathered on the shores of the Bay of Fundy this past Saturday to oppose Energy East, TransCanada’s proposed 1.1 million barrel per day pipeline. Like nearly all print media in the province of New Brunswick, the Telegraph-Journal is owned by the Irving family, whose company, Irving Oil, has partnered with TransCanada to build a maritime export terminal for the proposed Energy East pipeline.

    I am a proud resident of Red Head, Saint John, a small rural community with quiet roads and beautiful coastal views.

    TransCanada is proposing a 1.1 million barrel per day pipeline from Alberta to Saint John. After travelling almost the entire length of the country, it would end at a new deep water port on the Bay of Fundy. The Energy East project also includes a massive tank “farm” to store the oil that would be loaded onto waiting ships — across the street from my home.

    Why do I oppose Energy East?

    I’m worried about the air we breathe.

    Saint John is highly industrialized, and residents are already exposed to increased health risks from air pollution, not to mention the oil smells near Irving’s new rail facility. We have, among other industries, Irving Oil’s export terminal and the Canaport LNG terminal. We have 38 times the industrial pollution of Fredericton and 243 times that of Moncton. A recent study found lung cancer rates 30 per cent higher in Saint John than in either of these communities. The health experts I’ve spoken to say that existing regulations for air pollution as inadequate. Yet TransCanada says air pollution from Energy East would not be significant.

    I’m worried about the prospect of a spill or fire at the tank storage farm.

    The deputy fire chief in Burnaby, B.C., has issued a scathing report on the risks presented by a similar oil tank storage facility on the West Coast. The chief warned that a fire at the expanded tank farm could create a “nightmare scenario” resulting in a massive urban evacuation.

    I am having trouble trusting TransCanada and Irving Oil. Despite several requests, TransCanada has refused to hold a public meeting with Red Head residents with an open question-and-answer period.

    A recent Reuters investigation of the New Brunswick Department of Energy found that since 2012, Irving’s export terminal has experienced at least 19 accidents classified as “environmental emergencies.” In 2013, Irving received a formal warning for taking more than a day to report a storage tank leak at the Canaport facility.

    According to National Energy Board statistics, TransCanada has had more pipeline ruptures than any other company in Canada. The company’s electronic monitoring equipment won’t even detect a spill that is less than 1.5 per cent of the pipeline’s capacity. This means over 2 million litres can spill before anyone is alerted.

    My concerns don’t stop at the end of my driveway.

    The Energy East project would see 115 oil tankers in the Bay of Fundy — and potentially far more now that the Cacouna, Quebec, port has been cancelled. The endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Bay of Fundy are already vulnerable to ship strikes and low-frequency ship noise, both of which Energy East threatens to worsen. Moving in and out of port for export, Energy East tankers would carry 1 to 2 million barrels of oil each.

    Energy East would ship diluted bitumen from the tar sands. Sticky and heavy, bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands separated from the diluents (chemicals) and sunk in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River during a pipeline spill in 2010.This cost Enbridge more than $1 billion to clean up, yet submerged oil remains on the river bed to this day.

    One federal study found diluted bitumen sunk and formed “tar balls”in marine conditions similar to the Bay of Fundy. A major spill that occurs during loading of the tankers or when the tankers are leaving wouldn’t just threaten whales. It could be a serious blow for all ocean-dependent economies and jobs.

    A draft federal report accessed through freedom of information admits that not enough is known about the potential toxic effects of tar sands crude in our waterways. Energy East passes through or comes near more than 300 waterways, including at least six of the St. John River’s main tributaries.

    I want to do my part in helping protect future generations.

    The Energy East pipeline would create more climate pollution than any single Atlantic province.

    A recent scientific reportsays 85 per cent of Canada’s tar sands need to stay in the ground if we are to avoid the worst of climate change. Industry wants to double production by 2030 and will pursue both pipeline and rail expansion to export their product. Filling the Energy East pipeline would allow a close to 40 per cent increase in tar sands production.

    We can do better. This export pipeline puts so much at risk for such short-term benefit. There is much more at stake than profit.
  • One River Left Standing

    If you’ve been wondering how the changes to the Canadian Navigable Waters Protection Act affect us in New Brunswick, here’s the scoop. Since 1882, Canadians lakes, rivers and streams have been protected from development that would impede navigation (pipelines, bridges, power lines, dams, mining and forestry equipment, etc.). Now a body of water has to be listed on Schedule 2 to be protected by the Act. And for NB, what is on Schedule 2? The Saint John River. Open season on all the rest.

  • We are UnFrackable -#WetsuwetenStrong and the Ethics of LNG

    We are UnFrackable -#WetsuwetenStrong and the Ethics of LNG
     
    NBASGA, along with other sponsors - NBMEdiaCoop, RAVEN, Council of Canadians Fredericton, and the Peace and Friendship Alliance - were set to bring a cross country tour to Fredricton, until the corona virus changed our plans.

    However, under the sponsorship of a different "RAVEN" group ("Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs") - the tour has been redesigned as a 3-part webinar series.

    "We are UnFrackable" – focuses on national resistance to LNG – aka fracked gas.  Its goals are to share strategic approaches – from supporting Indigenous legal challenges, to divestment and de-funding campaigns – and to build an unbreakable alliance of action.  The narrative peddled by government and industry is that LNG is “ethical”, “environmental”, and “economic”.  The webinars will bring together fantastic expert guests and frontline activists to debunk that myth, while connecting the dots of resistance from coast to coast to coast.

    The first webinar is FRIDAY APRIL 3 at 8 pm AT and is entitled: #WetsuwetenStrong and the Ethics of LNG,with Hereditary Chief Adam Gagnon and Mike Sawyer, COGC.

    It will be an amazing opportunity to hear directly from Wet’suwet’en hereditary leader Chief Dsta’Hyl – Adam Gagnon, in conversation with Mike Sawyer of the Citizen’s Oil and Gas Council.
    • Chief Gagnon is a member of the Likhts’amisyu clan who have launched legal challenges to protect their traditional territory from fracked gas pipelines. He will talk about the Constitutional and Charter challenge to Coastal Gas Link and other fossil projects on Wet’suwet’en territory, based on the equity rights of future generations in a time of climate crisis.
    • Micheal Sawyer brings 30 years of extensive experience in Canadian regulatory and energy policy matters. Sawyer is no stranger to the power of citizen-driven justice: he’s famous for winning a court challenge against an LNG plant proposed for Lelu Island in BC: three weeks after that victory, the project was cancelled.
    • Your host is Mary Lovell, a climate justice organizer that has been primarily organizing against tar sands, extreme oil, and the Trans Mountain project for eight years. Mary is a campaigner with RAVEN and Sierra Club BC.
    The achievement of Indigenous Peoples, and of activists like Sawyer, are proof: people power works.  And, when we forge alliances across the country, we are un-frackable. The strategic legal approaches like those being used in B.C., Quebec, and Nova Scotia against fracked gas infrastructure can become a blueprint for fighting LNG projects across the country.

    This first webinar will touch on projects that may affect New Brunswick, but have been flying under the radar.

    To sign-up for the webinar and/or find more information:  https://raventrust.com/we-are-unfrackable-webinar-series/
    We have also put up an event on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/events/1269560153248578
    Contact https://raventrust.com/we-are-unfrackable-webinar-series/
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