Council of Canadians energy campaigner Maryam Adrangi. Photo by Terry Neesam/ CBC.
The Canadian Press reports, “The federal government announced changes Monday to improve oil tanker safety off Canadian coasts, and shore up support for several controversial projects that would increase oil exports from British Columbia. The changes include some new measures — administrative penalties for polluters and mandatory marine response plans for oil terminal operators — and increased frequency for measures already in place, such as annual inspections for all tankers and offshore aerial surveillance.”
“(This) was dismissed as ‘greenwashing’ by the Council of Canadians, which opposes proposed pipeline projects that would deliver oil from Alberta to the B.C. coast for shipping overseas. …The Harper government is trying to find a way to ignore public opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline while making it look like they’re listening, using world-class greenwashing’, Maryam Adrangi, of the Council of Canadians, said in an email.”
The article notes, “The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker port would see an increase of about 250 tankers a year into Kitimat. The proposed doubling of Kinder Morgan’s existing Trans Mountain pipeline would increase vessel traffic to Port Metro Vancouver by about 400 annually.”
For more, please read:
More inspections, tougher pollution penalties for oil tanker traffic
No Pipelines! No Tankers! Campaign web-page
