Climate and Energy

Last week, BC’s Minister of Forests and Range, Pat Bell, announced the introduction of a new Zero Net Deforestation Act.  Minister Bell explained:

British Columbia is committed to achieving zero net deforestation by 2015 to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Forests absorb and store carbon, which make them important allies in the fight against climate change.

Make your voice heard for a permanent, comprehensive, legislated oil tanker ban before September 30, 2016.

Today (July 27th) Premier Christy Clark walked out of the Council of the Federation meetings, being held between Canada’s Premiers in Halifax, vowing that she would not discuss a National Energy Strategy until Alberta agrees to share revenue that it gets as a result of the controversial Enbridge Pipeline and Tanker project. 

Throughout the debate about whether the Keystone XL Pipeline should be built, industry proponents have argued that if the tarsands bitumen doesn’t go to Texas, it will be shipped to Asia through Canada.  So, with the Keystone XL Pipeline on hold until after the 2012 election, industry’s eyes are turning to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, which proposes to take bitumen from the Tarsands to Kitimat, and load it onto oil tankers. 

In January 2016, West Coast Environmental Law Association released Keeping Our Coast Clean: Frequently asked questions about an oil tanker ban on BC’s Pacific North Coast, in response to the Prime Minister’s direction to formalize an oil tanker ban on the north coast of British Columbia.

Canada will soon have a national price on carbon.  It will start at $10 per tonne of carbon in 2018, rising to $50 tonne in 2022 (equivalent to about 11¢ per litre of gas in 2022).

West Coast has called for a price on carbon for over twenty years, and we welcome this announcement. Putting a price on harm to our atmosphere is a good first step in dealing with the gigatonnes of fossil fuel pollution that Canada produces each year.

BC’s Climate Leadership Plan is missing in action.  Originally planned for release in December 2015, at the Paris Climate Talks, its release has been repeatedly delayed, with recent speculation pointing towards a dead-of-summer, don’t look now, release.

In our recent blog post suggesting that the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) is not properly regulating water use by oil and gas companies in the North East of the province, we didn't directly point out that the province's current efforts to "modernize" BC's archaic Water Act could (if done right) help solve some of these problems. 

A recent ad campaign linked to a top oil sands firm questions what drives the work of West Coast Environmental Law.