Big news for all those working to stop the reckless expansion of the Alberta tar sands and the international movement fighting to stop run away climate change: President Obama announced late last week that he will not approve the Keystone XL pipeline as it is currently proposed.  
President Obama took on the decision of whether or not to allow the expansion of this crude oil pipeline, and ultimately he decided to send the proponents back to the drawing board. Not only did he state that the proposed route from the Alberta tar sands through a sensitive aquifer in the Midwest en route down to the heavy oil refineries of the Gulf Coast was unacceptable, but he also stated that climate change must be taken into consideration.

This is a big win, and it shows that the unprecedented protests over the past few months have had an impact. We have seen people putting themselves on the line, on a scale unseen in many years in the United States. We have even seen NASA’s top climate scientist James Hansen joining forces with a cadre of Hollywood stars willing to be arrested to make a point. This was a big tent coalition that included state governors, ranchers, preachers and football fans.

All of this came to a head with a massive protest in Washington DC where over 10,000 people surrounded the White House. A week later the project was abandoned.

This is a big win, but there’s still so much left to do to permanently defuse what organizer Bill McKibben calls one of the world’s biggest ‘carbon bombs’, the Alberta tar sands.

The lobbyists and spin doctors of Big Oil have been arguing that if the Keystone pipeline isn’t expanded, then the tar sands crude will just easily get out through new and expanded pipelines across BC. They couldn’t be any more wrong.

There is strong and growing opposition to tar sands pipeline expansion to Canada’s Pacific coast. We didn’t just surround the White House -- we have the tar sands surrounded. Opposition is growing to the tar sands all over the world and it is stronger on the west coast of Canada than anywhere else.

A poll taken last year showed 80 per cent of British Columbians opposed to crude oil tankers on our coastal waters. First Nations are solid in their opposition to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline across their territories. In fact 61 chiefs from across the region signed a declaration stating their opposition to all tar sands oil infrastructure in their territory.  

Big Oil has been trying the sneak more and more oil out of Vancouver Harbour, but increasingly that effort is being met with concern and protest -- from local First Nations, municipalities and from the public at large. Kinder Morgan’s plans to massively ramp up pipeline capacity and crude oil exports through the Burrard Inlet are going to be met with one heck of a fight.  

We understand, here in BC, that all of our efforts are part of the same struggle as the opposition to the KeystoneXL pipeline. And we understand how the urgency of the situation. With its recent report, the International Energy Agency made it clear to everyone that we need to change our course in the next five years or we will be locked into a path of inevitable climate catastrophe. We need less tankers and pipelines, not more. The choices we make today have implications that last as long as the infrastructure we build. We can’t wait untill some day in the future; the future is now.

Last week’s announcement on Keystone is a win. We’ve won one battle, but winning the war is going to be a lot tougher. As Canadians we have a special responsibility, given that we sit on one of the largest remaining reserves of oil on the planet. Like a drunk drinking mouth wash when he runs out of beer, our oil addiction has led us to extracting the dirtiest form of oil when what we need instead is to kick the habit.

President Obama, in the midst of his last campaign, said, “Let us be the generation that ends the tyranny of oil”. Let’s use the oil we are already extracting to fuel the transition to smarter alternatives.

Together, with our partners around the world, we can defuse the tar sands carbon bomb before it’s too late.

Ben West | Healthy Communities Campaigner
Wilderness Committee