From Our Newsletter: Join the Movement to Keep Our Coast From Getting "Tanked"

For 37 years the coastal waters of northern British Columbia have been protected from oil tanker traffic. This ban is now under threat. And this latest fight is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eco-controversy over the Oil Sands.

As published in The Vancouver Sun, the tanker controversy centers over a 1,170-kilometre multi-billion-dollar pipeline that by 2015, would link the oil sands near Fort McMurray to a port in Kitimat on B.C.'s north coast.

Oil would flow west, while condensate - used in oil sands production - would flow east to Alberta in a second, twinned pipeline. These pipelines would wend their way through pristine, rugged terrain.

Environmentalists and community activists are mobilizing to oppose the project and oil tanker traffic that would threaten our sensitive ecosystem, and the movement is growing.

One must only Google "Exxon Valdez" to see the devastation a spill can wreak. When it comes to environmental responsibility, the overall track record of the petrochemical industry in environmental responsibility is weak. From damaged watersheds to toxins not cleaned up, this has been documented in case after case, throughout the world.

The stakes are high: vessels ranging from cruise ship size to supertankers would need to wend their way through narrow waterways full of navigational hazards; the same treacherous channels where the Queen of the North ferry sank. At risk would be the Mackenzie, Fraser and Skeena watersheds, the Great Bear Rainforest, and BC’s wildlife population.

Oil producers are concerned that climate change regulations introduced in the US might reduce profits that now come from the US being the biggest customer for oil sands oil. This makes the increasingly oil-hungry Asian market more attractive. And a pipeline carrying oil to the Pacific for transit via tanker to Asia could thwart environmental activists seeking to stop the extraction of the oil sands, which is among the most polluting forms of energy extraction. To read the full article in the Vancouver Sun, click here.