Local groups oppose Energy East pipeline
Winnipeg Sun
Local lobby groups are up in arms over how a proposed cross-country pipeline could destroy the environment.
The Energy East pipeline, which would transport 1.1 million barrels of oil through six provinces from Western to Eastern Canada, was denounced Monday by environmental, community, and religious groups, with the coalition calling on the National Energy Board (NEB) to include full climate change impacts in its review of the project at a press conference held at the University of Winnipeg.
“The impact of this project upon this country has extremely high potential to cause devastating and irreversible effects towards the environment, affecting connected eco-systems that rely on sustainability,” said U of W student Sadie Lavoie, who is also the Manitoba aboriginal commissioner for the Canadian Federation of Students.
“As indigenous people, we still use the lands. We still gather; we still hunt; we still use the forests and the waters,” said First Nations activist Chickadee Richard. “So, what this pipeline would do to us, we may never recover. It’s in a crisis mode right now and we all have a responsibility to future generations.”
The groups drafted a letter to urge the NEB to conduct an environmental impact review that will include the effects of producing, refining, and burning oil.
“This really represents the interests of the oil industry taking precedence over a rational and compassionate planning of our future,” said Alex Paterson of No Energy East Manitoba.
“We know what the conclusion will be if the NEB reviews the climate impacts of this proposal,” said Eric Reder, Wilderness Committee campaign director. “The science is clear that developing new fossil fuel infrastructure — especially for an extreme energy source like the tar sands — will lead to runaway climate chaos.”
Coalition members claimed TransCanada’s project proposal submission to the NEB only included greenhouse emissions from construction and day-to-day operations of the pipeline, ignoring the impact tar sands oil extraction has on climate change.
“Without considering climate change and listening to people’s voices, any review of the pipeline will be incomplete and illegitimate,” said Mary Robinson, chair of the Council of Canadians-Winnipeg chapter. “This is not something that can be ignored.”
The groups also plan to lobby both the province and the city as such a pipeline would put all the rivers it crosses at risk, including the Red and Assiniboine, Paterson said.
