Environmentalists had better be preparing to move their White House demos and crusading movie stars north, to B.C. - to try to thwart Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline across B.C. to Kitimat, the point from which oil would then go via tanker to China and other points east.
They should be warned, that project will be much harder to thwart; a strongly supportive Harper government has a majority and won't face the electorate until 2015.
From various of the 52 First Nations whose lands the pipeline would cross:
* On October 1, 2010, the Chiefs of the First Nations Summit of BC, representing a majority of First Nations and Tribal Councils in the province, passed a resolution calling on the federal government to halt Northern Gateway until its received free, prior and informed consent by affected First Nations.
* In March 2010, nine Coastal First Nations declared an oil tanker ban under their traditional laws.
It will be very hard to get this pipe built, period. And lost in the rhetoric, but mentioned towards the bottom of this G&M piece, is the fact that the federal environmental review of the pipeline won't even be finished for "a couple of years". So it certainly won't get built anytime soon.
4 comments:
Harper and the oil industry will use every trick in the book to push this pipeline through, including offering First Nations big bucks for support. Stand up and stand strong, people of B.C.!
Still no treaties with most of the first nations involved so it will be a very interesting time if they try this.
Only joking maybe, but I suggested to a friend yesterday they should scoop the bitumen laden sand out of the ground and load it into gondola cars and ship it down to Texas where they can use their own water to process the bitumen into oil and refine it. Of course, Texas has a problem with water. lol.
Expect a blockbuster land settlement and pipeline.
The First Nations smell money.
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