OTTAWA – The Council of Canadians is available to comment on the Canadian Energy Strategy signed by premiers at the Council of the Federation meeting that threatens to fast-track oil pipelines without making firm commitments for absolute reductions in climate pollution.
“We need leadership from premiers to address the climate crisis and the Canadian Energy Strategy agreed to falls short,” says Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “It is positive to see commitments to improved energy efficiency and renewable power, but this must be matched by commitments to absolute emission reductions and a halt to tar sands expansion. The strategy allows for more oil pipelines. Current proposals on the table threaten to allow enough tar sands expansion to make meaningful climate pollution cuts nearly impossible.”
“It is no small irony that Alberta is experiencing one of Canada’s biggest pipeline spills while premiers have finalized a Canadian Energy Strategy that gives spaces for massive tar sands pipelines like Kinder Morgan and Energy East,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Halting extreme energy expansion, including tar sands infrastructure by pipeline and rail, fracking and offshore drilling, is essential, as is respecting Indigenous rights, better regulating the oil and gas industry, shifting subsidies to climate solutions and supporting good jobs that reduce our climate footprint. This should be the bedrock of a Canadian Energy Strategy, and there are plenty of ways premiers can achieve this.”
Barlow has been raising the alarm about the impacts on water and climate of the increasing shift to new intensive extraction methods as conventional sources of fossil fuels dry up. These new methods require more energy and water, creating more pollution and destruction.
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Contact:
Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Campaigner, The Council of Canadians
Cell: 613-793-5488
