The Council of Canadians has highlighted that British Columbia has ten active coal mines and another twenty in development. We have also noted that to speed this development, Premier Christy Clark has committed $24-million to reduce ‘regulatory delays’ for new mines.
Our Comox Valley chapter has been actively raising concerns about the proposed Raven coal mine since 2010. In September 2011, Maude Barlow spoke at a large public forum in Courtenay in opposition to this mine. In November 2012, the Council of Canadians formally expressed its opposition to the Raven coal mine at its annual general meeting in Nanaimo.
Our Delta-Richmond chapter has also spoken against the proposed expansion of the Westshore Terminals coal port at Roberts Bank. This work has included a joint statement with the Wilderness Committee against the proposed port expansion.
We have also commented on the issue of coal in various campaign blogs, including ‘NEWS: Carbon emissions from increased coal exports in BC would top Northern Gateway pipeline’ and ‘UPDATE: Coal threatens workers, water and the climate’.
And we have noted that Vancouver-based Teck Resources – the company whose existing and proposed coal mines in British Columbia have prompted concerns from the US Environmental Protection Agency about the pollution of Kootenai-Koocanusa watersheds – also operates a copper-zinc mine in Newfoundland that would benefit from the environmentally-damaging Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam and a copper-gold mine in Chile that threatens the Elqui River.
For related campaign blogs, please see http://canadians.org/blog/?p=18476 (on the expansion of the Westshore Terminal), http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17786 (on the Council of Canadians passing a resolution opposed to the Raven coal mine), http://canadians.org/blog/?p=4919 (on the Comox Valley chapter honouring CoalWatch), http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10714 (on Maude Barlow speaking against the Raven coal mine), http://canadians.org/blog/?p=18438 (on coal exports leading to carbon emissions above the Northern Gateway pipeline), http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17888 (on the impacts of coal), and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=19180, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=18204 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=18253 (on Teck Resources).
