Powerful Testimony at Enbridge Pipeline Hearings

Powerful testimony at the Enbridge Northern Gateway Joint Review panel has gone viral on the Internet, as Lee Brain, the son of an oil man, spoke out against the proposed pipeline in Prince Rupert.

"The Enbridge Northern Gateway Project is simply just one of thousands of projects across the globe that are bi-products of a severely flawed global system," said Brain in his testimony to the panel. "Even if this pipeline does not go through, there will be another proposal of the same magnitude appear somewhere else – and this will go on and on, until we either address the fundamental root of the issue – or face the slow decline of our civilization."

Read the rest of his submission here, or watch the video below.

Enbridge Inc. plans to pipe crude oil from Alberta’s tar sands to B.C.’s Port of Kitimat, and ship it in supertankers to Asian markets. More than 200 tankers a year – two to three per week – would weave a hazardous path through an obstacle course of narrow, reef-studded channels and inlets of B.C.’s north coast that have already claimed ships like the B.C. ferry Queen of the North, which is still leaking oil 6 years later.

Federal hearings into the China-backed Enbridge pipeline began January 10 in Kitimat. More than 4,000 people have signed up to speak at the hearings, including many Sierra Club BC supporters – an unprecedented number of people participating in a federal review process. On February 13, the city of Terrace went on record opposing the project, reversing its former neutral stance. The Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District followed suit, declaring its opposition to any expansion of bulk crude oil tanker traffic as well as bitumen export in the region and calling on the  federal government to establish a legislated ban. On February 27, two more local governments joined in opposition when Prince Rupert and Smithers both passed a motion against the project.

Sierra Club BC's Caitlyn Vernon was in Prince Rupert on February 4 for a No Tankers rally hosted by the Gitga'at First Nation. 2,000 people attended the day-long event. Read Caitlyn's blog about the day or watch our video about the rally.

Environmental Groups Attacked

As the hearings began, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and the secretly-backed group Ethical Oil launched a media attack on environmental groups who have encouraged supporters to sign up at the hearings.

Sierra Club BC responded with an op-ed in The Vancouver Sun from our Executive Director George Heyman. Caitlyn Vernon, our coastal campaigner, wrote an open letter to Canadians, while Sarah Cox, our communications director, wrote a commentary for the Georgia Straight.

Listen to George Heyman debate tankers and pipeline backer Patrick Moore in a Radio NL Kamloops show.

Polling shows that the vast majority of British Columbians are opposed to oil tanker traffic through the Great Bear Rainforest, the largest intact coastal temperate rainforest on the planet. More than 130 First Nations and the Union of B.C. Municipalities are also opposed.

Watch the film spOIL online to learn more about what's at stake.

Take Action to stop oil tankers on our coast. You can also make your voice heard by writing letters to the editor and phoning into talk shows. Or submit a written comment to the Joint Review Panel by August 31.

At the start of the hearings, Sierra Club BC and other environmental groups released a poll that shows almost 75 per cent of British Columbians are worried about foreign investment in Canadian natural resources. The poll results show that only a small minority of British Columbians (15%) are concerned about charitable funding provided by U.S. philanthropic foundations to Canadian environmental groups -- the issue Oliver is using to try to discredit environmental groups.

Read our press release and backgrounder.

The Haisla presenters on the first day of the Northern Gateway hearings in Kitamaat, January 10. Photo: Pat Moss.

Funding

Environmental issues cross borders, and U.S. philanthropic foundations have a long history of funding Canadian environmental groups and initiatives that protect the environment while creating jobs. The B.C. and Canadian federal governments were happy to match private funding, including from U.S. sources, to help kick-start a new conservation economy in the Great Bear Rainforest as an alternative to logging.

According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), foreign companies poured nearly $20 billion dollars into the tar sands over a three-year period from 2007-2010. In contrast, U.S. charitable foundations have given Canadian environmental groups less than 1.5%of that amount over a ten year period, accounting for all charitable funding on Canadian environmental issues ranging from forest protection to fisheries conservation.

Funding for environmental charities like Sierra Club BC helps right the imbalance between ordinary citizens and the political influence of multinational corporations operating in Canada.

The vast majority of Sierra Club BC's funding comes from Canadian sources, including monthly individual donors, major donors, corporate partners, governments, and U.S. and Canadian foundations.

Global Warming

Global warming and oil spills are issues that transcend borders.

The international community is running out of time to slow down global warming before we pass dangerous tipping points. According to a November 2011 report by the International Energy Agency, if fossil fuel infrastructure is not changed within five years, the world will 'lose forever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change. This is essentially the same time period the Canadian government wants to use to build giant crude pipelines instead of promoting investment into the alternative energy forms of the future.

According to NASA scientist James Hansen, the Canadian tarsands alone store enough carbon to catapult global warming beyond catastrophic thresholds, if burned completely.

Learn more about the threat of tanker traffic along our wild coast and how it would impact the Great Bear Rainforest.

Enbridge Hearings

For those of you who have signed up to give oral statements, if you live along the proposed pipeline and tanker route the Panel will hear from you likely late March to July 2012. From November 2012 to March 2013 the Panel will hear oral statements from people who live farther away (eg. Kelowna, Port Hardy, Victoria, Vancouver, and Calgary).

Take Action to stop oil tankers on our coast.