VANCOUVER, Feb. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - An oil spill off the coast of Vancouver in Howe Sound, which has dumped hundreds of litres of diesel into the local marine environment is being decried by environmental groups today as proof of the danger of increased tanker traffic that could result from the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
The cosmos must be messing with Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley. Just as the Kinder Morgan pipeline controversy surges to fever pitch over oil spill impacts, a barge near Vancouver has sunk, spilling diesel into the ocean in the territory of the Squamish Nation.
Media reports about threatened trade wars between B.C. and Alberta and commentary on the role of Justin Trudeau's government will now be accompanied by pictures of containment booms, spill responders and affected First Nations.
“Regardless of your views on this particular pipeline (we are opposed, in case that wasn’t clear), anyone who thinks their locally-elected government or local First Nations shouldn’t get railroaded by a US corporation just because they have a federal approval should be very concerned about these recent developments.”
VANCOUVER, BC, Coast Salish Territories – West Coast Environmental Law applauds a new provincial plan announced today to restrict the transportation of diluted bitumen in BC unless the science shows that spills can safely be cleaned up. A proposed regulation limiting increased bitumen shipments by pipeline or rail is a welcome safety measure for the environment and public health, say the environmental lawyers, and an important warning for Kinder Morgan if it continues to pursue its Trans Mountain pipeline and tankers project.
The B.C. government has introduced new oil spill regulations that include restrictions on transportation until "the behaviour of spilled bitumen can be better understood."
The measures announced Tuesday could complicate Texas-based energy giant Kinder Morgan's plan to expand its Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
Canadian governments are sitting by and watching as endangered species disappear, in what one environmental lawyer calls a “slow moving catastrophe.”
The latest blow comes as a deadline for provinces to outline plans to protect threatened caribou habitat blew by without a single province meeting the deadline.
It's an oil spill the size of Paris. But only now is the world's attention catching up with the vast scale of the disaster in the East China Sea — the largest tanker spill in decades.
The crash itself happened weeks ago when an Iranian tanker called the Sanchi collided with a Chinese freighter on January 6 and burst into flames, later sinking. Thirty-two crew members are presumed dead.
The Trudeau government approved the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline expansion project after being told in a series of memos that First Nations believed its "paternalistic" approach to consultations was both "unrealistic" and "inadequate," reveal newly-released records obtained by National Observer.
