TransCanada has now confirmed that it will stop seeking to build an oil terminal on the St. Lawrence River at Cacouna, Quebec. That terminal would have loaded 175 supertankers a year with bitumen for export on the river.
The Montreal Gazette reports, “The 1.1-million-barrel-a-day pipeline was originally meant to ship Western Canadian crude to two terminals, in Cacouna and Saint John, N.B. …The company had expected the pipeline to begin carrying oil to refineries in Quebec by 2017 and in New Brunswick the next year, but now says it will be in service by 2020.”
In their news report, Reuters quotes Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue stating, “Yes it’s a win, but ultimately the entire project needs to be scrapped. I think we’re going to see more municipalities taking a stand on this, more landowners. I think (aboriginal group) opposition along the route is strong and growing.”
The Council of Canadians congratulates its Quebec allies for their work in stopping the oil terminal.
To contribute to the broader efforts to stop the port in Cacouna, we encouraged our supporters to sign an online Nature Quebec petition demanding that the Quebec government stop TransCanada’s work on the terminal, outlined the issues of concern in numerous campaign blogs, asked our supporters to call their MP to back a House of Commons motion against the terminal, produced a report that points to the threat posed to the St. Lawrence River and other waterways by the Energy East pipeline, and highlighted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s tar sands export agenda threatens whales in Quebec, the Bay of Fundy and on the West Coast.
For more on today’s news and the implications it has, particularly in New Brunswick, on our campaign to stop the Energy East pipeline, please read Harden-Donahue’s blog Cacouna port dead: What does this mean for opposition to Energy East?
For more on our overall Energy East campaign, please click here.
