Great Bear Rainforest threatened by Northern Gateway Pipeline Proposal

You may have heard about the Northern Gateway Pipeline in recent news, but sometimes it's hard to know the full scope of what's going on if you only get tidbits. Here's a brief synopsis of what Enbridge is planning and what's at stake.

The pipeline would be a $5.5 billion dollar project that would see 525 000 L of oil  per day taken from Alberta to the northern coastline of British Columbia. The proposal would cross over 1000 lakes, streams and other waterways before coming to a halt in the Great Bear Rainforest. Then around 200 tankers would come to the region to transport oil to Asia or California.

Enbridge has applied for permission to the federal government to go ahead with this venture, but first it has to go by a panel of experts who will look it over.

Pembina, a reputable policy research group that focuses on climate change and energy, doesn't agree with the project [and for more than just environmental reasons]. They say, among other things, that Enbridge is missing crucial pieces in their application (like that there are no long-term contracts from shippers).

Part of what is at stake

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Anyway, in plain language, Enbridge says that they wouldn't have proposed the project if they didn't believe they could do it without damaging the environment. They're going to do a lot of new things, and there are different regulations in place this time, etc.

Once again, these energy officials are citing policy, not reality.

And the reality is that from 1999 - 2009 Enbridge was responsible for 713 oil spills. (Polaris Institute) You might remember one of their more recent screw-ups: the Kalamazoo oil spill back in July 2010, when over 800 000 gallons of oil made their way into the river.

The Great Bear Rainforest

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This issue is no doubt super controversial; it has received more comments than any other project of its kind in federal history.

For more information, or to take action go to savethegreatbear.org.