Climate and Energy

In the haggard, pre-Christmas weeks after the Paris climate negotiations, staff Counsel Andrew Gage is home with his family in Victoria and Communications Specialist Anjali Appadurai has just finished the long journey to India to visit family. The lead-up, attendance and follow-up to COP21 were intensely busy times, and we haven’t written as much for the Environmental Law Alert as intended, but it seems fitting to post a wrap-up of our time in the grey city of Paris, and tell you a bit about what we did there.

At the end of September, local government elected representatives from all over British Columbia listened to their constituents.

It was a very long way to travel to be turned away at the door. 

Getting there

I recently had the privilege of attending the fourth annual Healing Walk for the tar sands, which was held at Fort McMurray from July 4 to 6. 

It feels a bit like déjà vu. 

Once again we’re faced with a federal government study that was highly relevant to the environmental assessment of the Enbridge pipelines and tankers project, but which was not considered in the assessment because it was released too late.

This week, the latest chapter in Canada’s David and Goliath struggle between citizens and Big Oil unfolded as a BC non-profit organization, Forest Ethics Advocacy, launched a constitutional challenge to new requirements in the National Energy Board Act that have the effect of silencing citizens concerned about tar sands pipelines.

UPDATE August 22, 2013: We’re pleased to report a small victory in the case of the missing Skeena! The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has agreed to extend public comment and participant funding deadlines after West Coast Environmental Law and the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation drew attention to an inaccurate map – one that failed to show the Skeena River – used in public notices about the Pacific Northwest LNG project near Prince Rupert.

Would BC be ready for a major spill? Now is your chance to have your say.

We’ve been clear that the roll-back of Canada’s environmental laws – legal environmental protection that Canadians have worked for decades to put in place – can only benefit the oil and gas, mining and other big industrial players, at the expense of our communities and the environment. 

Well everyone else had one, and we just felt left out…

Seriously, though: here are the top 5 reasons why West Coast has launched the Environmental Law Alert blog (or blawg).