Energy East: Our Risk – Their Reward
Edmundston, N.B. – With TransCanada having filed its Energy East pipeline application this past Thursday to the National Energy Board, the Council of Canadians will be in Edmundston as part of an Atlantic Canada tour to share concerns about the pipeline. Speakers include Maude Barlow and Ben Gotschall, a rancher who has been working to oppose TransCanada’s other major pipeline, the Keystone XL. The public forum starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Centre Maillet.
“Atlantic Canada is on the precipice of a major decision: do they put their safety, environment, and tourism and fishery industries in peril to help the Alberta tar sands expand? The oil is not even for our own domestic use, but for export. Or are there other options?” said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “As they have shown with fracking, Atlantic Canadians know when a few jobs aren’t worth the risk. They can and should give TransCanada the boot.”
TransCanada, is proposing a pipeline to transport 1.1 million barrels of oil daily from Alberta to ports in Cacouna, Quebec and Saint John, New Brunswick. Up to 1 million barrels is expected to be exported unrefined.
Ben Gotschall is a rancher who has been active in opposing the Keystone export pipeline. He’s here to share the concerns shared by farmers and Ranchers, First Nations groups, and Nebraska citizens.
"In the name of corporate greed, they trample on citizen’s rights. The pipeline puts our most valuable resources at risk,” says Gotschall, “We will not allow TransCanada to violate our property rights, desecrate our sacred places, or compromise our farms, ranches, rivers, aquifers and communities. Nebraskans have been fighting Keystone with our neighbors in the U.S. We are proud to stand beside and work with our Canadian friends and neighbors to ensure that people will have clean air, land and water for future generations to come."
Energy East would transport crude oil, including diluted bitumen from the tar sands. Unlike conventional oil, bitumen has been shown to sink in fresh water, making it much harder to clean up. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, over $1 billion was spent on its clean-up effort. And yet submerged oil still remains on the river bottom.
“Atlantic Canadians are already on the front lines of climate change,” concludes Angela Giles, Atlantic Regional Organizer for the Council of Canadians, “The Energy East pipeline would produce more climate pollution then any single Atlantic province. We don’t need Energy East and the threats it brings to our water and climate. We can build the sustainable energy future the region needs and generate good, green jobs.”
Where: Centre Maillet, 429 rue Principale in the auditorium, Edmundston (map)
When: Thursday, November 6 at 7:00 p.m.
Who:
- Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, on protecting our water
- Ben Gotschall, Energy Director for Bold Nebraska, on ranchers’ opposition to Keystone XL
- Matthew Abbott, Fundy Baykeeper for the Conservation Council of New Brunswick
The conference will be in English with simultaneous interpretation.
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Find out more about Energy East.
Our handimation on Energy East: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfCWlTBLDJE
