trans-mountain TMEP km

yikes sf bay tar sand<div>
</div><div>=<div></div><div><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2022/07/26/climate-leader-netflix-donated-to-rightwing-think-tank/">https://www.desmog.com/2022/07/26/climate-leader-netflix-donated-to-rightwing-think-tank/</a></div><div>Netflix gives every impression of being one of the world’s most climate friendly corporations. The streaming company responsible for the blockbuster climate movie “Don’t Look Up” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence plans to slash or offset all of its corporate greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2022, a goal known as net-zero.Netflix is producing and providing a platform for documentaries, TV series, and feature films educating viewers about the climate crisis — about 160 million households globally watched one of these stories in 2020, <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/sustainability" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">according to</a> the company.“The film industry needs a leader when it comes to climate action,” Katharine Hayhoe, a chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy who belongs to an independent advisory group of experts for Netflix’s sustainability plan, <a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/sustainability" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">has said</a>. “I’m thrilled at how Netflix is taking on this leadership role.” But away from the public eye there is one area where Netflix is anything but green.The company has donated to a rightwing think tank in Canada that has also been supported financially by the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, the <a href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/Locations/Canada" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Exxon-owned</a> tar sands producer Imperial Oil, and the Charles G. Koch Foundation, an organization linked to Koch Industries.Known as the <a href="https://www.desmog.com/macdonald-laurier-institute/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Macdonald Laurier Institute</a>, this Ottawa-based think tank boasts of having “great influence” in pushing forward a massive tar sands pipeline expansion called Trans Mountain. That project’s greenhouse gas emissions could far eclipse any carbon reductions that Netflix promises in its “net-zero” plan.The Macdonald Laurier Institute is a relatively new think tank. Founded in 2010, its <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/about/who-makes-mli-work/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">board of directors and advisors</a> come from some of the top legal, lobbying and financial firms in Canada. It <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/18/conservative-us-network-undermined-indigenous-energy-rights-in-canada" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">is also a member</a> of the <a href="https://www.desmog.com/atlas-economic-research-foundation/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Atlas Network</a>, a U.S.-based coalition whose hundreds of partners worldwide include the <a href="https://www.desmog.com/cato-institute/" data-wpel-link="internal" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">Cato Institute</a>, a libertarian think tank co-founded by Charles Koch.The Macdonald Laurier Institute has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/18/conservative-us-network-undermined-indigenous-energy-rights-in-canada" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">partnered with Atlas</a> on a campaign to discourage the Canadian government from implementing laws that would give Indigenous communities greater power to push against oil and gas projects on their land.Netflix is listed as a donor to the Macdonald Laurier Institute in the organization’s 2018 annual report, alongside Imperial Oil, the Atlas Network and several dozen other supporters. “We believe that with your help we will bring Canada closer to becoming the best governed country in the world,” <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/2018_MLI_annual_report_Fweb.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">the annual report says</a> of donors like Netflix. The Macdonald Laurier Institute, also known as MLI, didn’t respond to questions about the Netflix donation.This might seem like an odd pairing, because Netflix <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/most-liberal-tech-companies-ranked-by-employee-donations.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">by some measures</a> is one of the most politically liberal tech companies, and MLI <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2014/11/19/what-can-a-little-birdie-twitter-tell-us-about-think-tank-ideology/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">is arguably</a> one of Canada’s most rightwing think tanks. But at the end of the day, Netflix is a large corporation with financial interests that could potentially be served by supporting a think tank <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/2018_MLI_annual_report_Fweb.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">that claims</a> it “has been regularly recognized for our influential thought leadership in Canada.” “Just because the Macdonald Laurier Institute is seen as more conservative, and Netflix is seen as having a more progressive agenda, doesn’t necessarily mean that their interests don’t align,” Donald Abelson, a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario who is an expert on think tanks, told DeSmog.But Abelson cautioned against assuming that Netflix supports MLI’s full political agenda; more than likely, its donation had nothing to do with pipelines. “Let’s say you joined a political party, does that mean you agree with all the policies or platforms that emerge from that party?” he said. <figure id="attachment_47277" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-47277" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 1.25rem; max-width: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 800px;"><picture class="wp-image-47277 size-large" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dont-Look-Up-Leonardo-DiCaprio-and-Jennifer-Lawrence-1024x433.png.webp 1024w, https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dont-Look-Up-Leonardo-DiCaprio-and-Jennifer-Lawrence-300x127.png.webp 300w, https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dont-Look-Up-Leonardo-DiCaprio-and-Jennifer-Lawrence-768x325.png.webp 768w, https://www.desmog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Dont-Look-Up-Leonardo-DiCaprio-and-Jennifer-Lawrence.png.webp 1135w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></picture><figcaption id="caption-attachment-47277" class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Netflix’s climate satire ‘Don’t Look Up’ broke viewing records when it was released in 2021. Credit: Netflix</figcaption></figure>Netflix didn’t respond to questions from DeSmog about the size of its donation or whether it was aware of MLI’s support for Trans Mountain, a pipeline designed to export an additional 590,000 barrels per day from the tar sands. The think tank has an entire section about the pipeline in its report naming Netflix as a donor. That section doesn’t once mention climate change and claims that a failure to build Trans Mountain “threatens Canada’s economy.” In the year that Netflix donated to the think tank, tensions were increasing over the Trans Mountain project, a 714-mile pipeline expansion connecting the Alberta tar sands to oil-carrying supertankers in the west coast city of Vancouver.Many environmental groups and First Nations were opposed to the project, and so was British Columbia Premier John Horgan, whose government delayed issuing crucial permits while arguing that the environmental risks of a potential oil spill couldn’t be justified. “I do believe we have a mandate to defend the coast,” Horgan <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/04/14/news/bc-issues-trans-mountain-pipeline-permit-update-horgan-heads-ottawa" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">said in 2018</a>. Kinder Morgan, the Texas-based company building the expansion, threatened to walk away entirely. All this constituted a “nightmare” to the Macdonald Laurier Institute, <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/mli-files/pdf/MLICommentary_April2018_Newman_FWeb.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">which argued in a report</a> that “the attractiveness of Canada as a place for major investments is at stake.”In May 2018, a senior fellow at the institute named Dwight Newman testified to Canada’s Senate, where he argued that the federal government had the legal authority to override environmental opposition to the pipeline in B.C. “Canada does have the legislative powers to get this project done if there is the will to do so,” Newman <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/newman-discusses-trans-mountain-issues-standing-senate-committee/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">said</a>. Two weeks later, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government would pay $4.5 billion to buy the pipeline from Kinder Morgan, effectively nationalizing the project. Trudeau <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/29/615197549/canadas-government-buys-controversial-oil-pipeline-to-ensure-it-gets-built" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">called</a> Trans Mountain “a vital project in the national interest” in a tweet, <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wjvkqq/canada-justin-trudeau-declares-climate-emergency-then-approves-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">just one day</a> after his government had declared a national “climate emergency” in Canada.The Macdonald Laurier Institute was thrilled about the role it played in the pipeline fight. It <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/files/pdf/2018_MLI_annual_report_Fweb.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">claimed</a> in its 2018 annual report to have shaped “government efforts to deal with the constitutional issues surrounding Trans Mountain,” adding that, “We have been at the forefront of efforts to chart a way out of the pipeline impasse.”The Macdonald Laurier Institute didn’t say in its report how much money Netflix donated that year. But it is possible to quantify the climate damage that will be caused by Trans Mountain. The pipeline, whose cost <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trans-mountain-sees-expansion-project-cost-almost-doubling-ceo-retire-2022-02-18/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">has now risen</a> to CAD $21.4 billion, could result in up to 15 million tons of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere annually once it’s completed in 2023, <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-paris-pipeline-paradox-97636" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: none;">according to calculations</a> by Environment and Climate Change Canada.  Netflix, by contrast, is now promising to cut or neutralize roughly 1 million tons of greenhouse gases related to its operations by the end of the year. Trans Mountain threatens to wipe out those climate gains entirely. </div><div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-tmx-pipeline-threatens-first-nations-people-it-must-be-stopped/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700; color: rgb(10, 10, 10); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(235, 235, 235); line-height: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-size: 16.2px; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;">TMX Pipeline Threatens First Nations People. It Must Be Stopped.</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">truthout 1020</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-tmx-pipeline-threatens-first-nations-people-it-must-be-stopped/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">
</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/the-tmx-pipeline-threatens-first-nations-people-it-must-be-stopped/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://truthout.org/articles/the-tmx-pipeline-threatens-first-nations-people-it-must-be-stopped/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div>=<a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/07/17/trans-mountain-pipeline-tar-sands-canada-us-kinder-morgan/">https://theintercept.com/2018/07/17/trans-mountain-pipeline-tar-sands-canada-us-kinder-morgan/</a>2x?
no lnx manyTHE U.S. AND CANADA ARE PREPARING FOR A NEW STANDING ROCK OVER THE TRANS MOUNTAIN TAR SANDS PIPELINEManaging the perceived security threat of Indigenous-led anti-pipeline movements has become a priority on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.Alleen Brown, Will ParrishJuly 17 2018, IN BRITISH COLUMBIA’S southern interior, on unceded land of the Secwepemc Nation, Kanahus Manuel stands alongside a 7-by-12-foot “tiny house” mounted on a trailer. Her uncle screws a two-by-four into a floor panel while her brother-in-law paints a mural on the exterior walls depicting a moose, birds, forests, and rivers — images of the terrain through which the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will pass, if it can get through the Tiny House Warriors’ roving blockade. The project would place a new pipeline alongside the existing Trans Mountain line, tripling the system’s capacity to 890,000 barrels of tar sands bitumen flowing daily from Alberta through British Columbia to an endpoint outside Vancouver.
On May 29, the Canadian government announced that it would nationalize the Trans Mountain pipeline to assure the expansion would be built, putting up 4.5 billion Canadian dollars ($3.5 billion) to acquire the pipeline and other assets from the Texas-based energy giant Kinder Morgan. The purchase has dramatically raised the stakes of the fight for both the administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and pipeline opponents like Manuel.
Should construction begin as scheduled in August, the Tiny House Warriors expect waves of allies from Indigenous nations inside Canada and beyond to join them as they wheel 10 of the houses into the pipeline’s path. Near the pipeline’s terminus outside Vancouver, members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation have constructed a traditional “watch house” from which to monitor the progress of construction.
Resistance to the pipeline is already escalating: On July 3, seven pipeline opponents rappelled from Vancouver’s Ironworkers Memorial Bridge in a daylong blockade of tanker traffic associated with the existing Trans Mountain line. Last week, the Tiny House Warriors wheeled the homes into a provincial park that sits on the site of a historic village near Clearwater, British Columbia, in an assertion of their title to the land. On Saturday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police singled out and arrested Manuel, whose livestream of the incident has garnered more than 500,000 views on Facebook. She was detained on a charge of “criminal mischief” and released later that day. The struggle against the expansion, Manuel told The Intercept, could become “the Standing Rock of the north.”
Calling themselves the Tiny House Warriors, a group of Indigenous Secwepemc people from Canada are building tiny houses in the path of the massive Kinder Morgan tar sands oil pipeline’s planned route through their territory. The house is a symbol of the home they are fighting to protect, creating hope and community in the face of destruction.Kanahus Manuel, an activist with the Tiny House Warriors in Canada. Photo: Ian Willms/Courtesy of GreenpeaceThat’s exactly what law enforcement agencies on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border fear. For more than a year, U.S. and Canadian authorities have been girding for a mobilization comparable to the 2016 resistance in North Dakota, according to law enforcement communications and government reports obtained by The Intercept. In Canada, Trudeau received a Cabinet memo discussing the implications of Standing Rock for Trans Mountain one week after his administration approved the pipeline expansion.In Washington state, where a branch of the existing Trans Mountain line feeds processed tar sands bitumen to four refineries along Puget Sound, law enforcement agencies are preparing for the anti-pipeline struggle to spill over to the U.S. side of the border. The sheriff’s office in Whatcom County monitored activists’ plans to travel to British Columbia for a recent Trans Mountain protest, and information collected was shared with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Washington State Patrol, and the Washington State Fusion Center. The sheriff’s office has arranged at least two multiagency law enforcement trainings on protest response in the last year and a half.
The documents underscore the heightened scrutiny and surveillance Indigenous-led movements fighting resource extraction have faced in the wake of the mass mobilization at Standing Rock. The Trans Mountain pipeline is part of a much bigger system whose tendrils reach deep into the United States. Trudeau’s bailout is the latest shot fired in a cross-border battle over the fate of the oil sands, bringing the Canadian fight to a head just as two oil sands pipelines, Enbridge Line 3 and Keystone XL, receive their own key approvals in the U.S. and move closer to construction. Canadian government officials are relying on completion of the three pipelines to convince oil companies to continue expanding tar sands production in Alberta.
In an era in which the climate crisis is rapidly accelerating and scientists are predicting widespread insecurity should political leaders fail to force a dramatic shift away from fossil fuels, the leaders of two of the world’s wealthiest countries are doubling down on pipeline construction and oil production. Meanwhile, managing the perceived security threat of those who stand in the way has increasingly become a priority for law enforcement.
“We take it very seriously,” said Manuel, who spent months fighting the Dakota Access pipeline and has long been involved in struggles for Indigenous sovereignty. “We’ve seen so many of our people being wrongfully convicted, being thrown in jail — Indigenous land defenders being criminalized.”
As with other Indigenous people in British Columbia, the Secwepemc have never relinquished their territory by way of treaty, land sale, or surrender, and they did not consent to the Trans Mountain expansion. “Everything flows from the land,” Manuel said. “If the land is destroyed, we are also destroyed. And that’s why we’ll stand so fiercely in defense of this land.”
A aerial view of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain marine terminal, in Burnaby, British Columbia, is shown on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. The federal Liberal government is spending $4.5 billion to buy Trans Mountain and all of Kinder Morgan Canada's core assets, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Tuesday as he unveiled the government's long-awaited, big-budget strategy to save the plan to expand the oil pipeline. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP)A aerial view of the Trans Mountain marine terminal in Burnaby, British Columbia, on May 29, 2018. Photo: Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via APCanada’s Global Energy AmbitionsThe Trans Mountain fight can be traced back to 2006, when then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged that the country would become a global “energy superpower” akin to Saudi Arabia. At the center of his plan was the development of Alberta’s tar sands, underground reserves of sand, clay, and oil, which has involved laying waste to vast swaths of Canada’s verdant boreal forests. To deliver the high carbon-emitting crude to refineries and markets abroad, energy companies proposed a series of new pipelines, including Trans Mountain, Keystone XL, Enbridge Line 3, Energy East, and Northern Gateway.
U.S. imports of Canadian oil have more than doubled since 2005, with increased tar sands production driving the bulk of the increase. But, along with a precipitous drop in oil prices, pipeline opposition movements have proved to be a genuine threat to continued tar sands expansion. Two proposed pipelines — Northern Gateway and Energy East — have been killed in the last two years.
The remaining oil sands pipelines inching toward construction face the promise of massive resistance. After the Obama administration killed Keystone XL in the wake of protests, it was brought back from the dead by newly elected President Donald Trump and received approval from Nebraska’s Public Service Commission to build along an altered route. Last week, the pipeline company notified the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota that it would begin preparing construction sites. “We will be waiting,” tribal Chairman Harold Frazier replied in a one-line letter. On June 28, Enbridge Line 3 received a key approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. “Enbridge and Minnesota have their Standing Rock,” Ojibwe activist Winona LaDuke posted on Facebook.
And in Canada, Kinder Morgan sparked a national crisis in April when it halted all nonessential spending on the Trans Mountain project pending a guarantee from Trudeau’s government that the pipeline would be completed.
At issue were “extraordinary political risks” stemming from resistance on the part of British Columbia’s provincial government, the company stated. Half a dozen First Nations had filed legal challenges to the pipeline, arguing that their land and waters would be threatened in areas they never signed over to the Canadian government, and Premier John Horgan proposed a temporary ban on any increase in tar sands oil shipments out of the province’s ports while a panel studied the potential consequences of a spill. In retaliation for obstructing production, Alberta’s provincial government prepared to cut off gasoline supplies to British Columbia.
Trudeau, who campaigned on promises of carbon emissions cuts and reconciliation with First Nations, stepped in to buy the project — stating that the pipeline was in the “national interest.”
[Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016. Trudeau has approved one controversial pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific Coast, but rejected another. On Tuesday, he approved Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline to Burnaby, British Columbia, but rejected Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, B.C.  (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, center, holds a press conference at the National Press Theater in Ottawa, Ontario, on Nov. 29, 2016, where he announced that his government had approved the Trans Mountain expansion project. Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP]A coalition of Indigenous organizers labeled the purchase a “declaration of war.” “We mean it literally. The military will be called,” Manuel and other organizers wrote in a statement. “It is the national pattern to use criminalization, civil action, and other penalties to repress Indigenous resistance to these policies by bringing to bear the weight of the law and police forces against Indigenous individuals and communities.”Some boosters of Trans Mountain have also predicted dire consequences for protesters. “There are some people that are going to die in protesting construction of this pipeline. We have to understand that,” David Dodge, a former head of the Bank of Canada who has served as an adviser to the Alberta government on infrastructure projects, stated recently.
For the climate, construction of the pipeline could be catastrophic. Numerous analysts have found that continued tar sands expansion is incompatible with efforts to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and the pipeline stands in stark conflict with Canada’s international emissions reduction commitments. A 2016 report by the Canadian government’s environmental protection agency estimated production and processing of Trans Mountain’s oil would emit 13 to 15 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Asked to comment on opposition to the project, Mackenzie Radan, a spokesperson for Canada’s natural resources minister, told The Intercept that 43 Indigenous communities along the Trans Mountain had route signed mutual benefit agreements with Kinder Morgan “worth hundreds of millions of dollars.” However, some leaders from those communities have underlined that the agreements don’t equal consent so much as lack of resources to put up a fight and perception of the pipeline’s inevitability.
“This project was subject to the most exhaustive review of any pipeline in Canadian history. Canadians know that the environment and the economy go hand in hand. They know you don’t have to make a choice between growing the economy and protecting the environment,” Radan added. “Together we’re leading the way in the transition to a lower carbon future.”
[Harriet Prince (R), 76, of the Anishinaabe tribe marches with Coast Salish Water Protectors and others against the expansion of Texas-based Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline project in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada on March 10, 2018.  / AFP PHOTO / Jason Redmond        (Photo credit should read JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images)]
A Threat to the Safety of PropertyCanadian law enforcement and intelligence agencies have frequently categorized pipeline opponents as extremist, violent, and criminal. The government has focused particularly on Indigenous activists, coining terminology such as “violent aboriginal extremists.”
Kanahus Manuel was born into Indigenous political struggles; her father is the late Art Manuel, a well-known activist and intellectual who spent his life fighting for decolonization. She felt called to go to Standing Rock as police repression escalated. Law enforcement and private security agents responded to protests with dogs, pepper spray, rubber bullets, mass arrests, and water hoses sprayed in below-freezing temperatures. Quieter was the sprawling intelligence-gathering operation, which included social media monitoring, undercover operatives posing as protesters, aerial videography, and information-sharing that crossed state, federal, and local jurisdictions and included the oil company.
“Nothing really surprises me when it comes to the colonial government. We’ve seen them work hand in hand with corporations on every issue,” Manuel said. “And it’s never anything new. Each time, it means we have to fight harder.”
Indeed, the surveillance and police response at Standing Rock was reminiscent of activities in Canada in years prior. In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police attempted to map out networks of Native protesters under a program called Project SITKA, according to a report obtained by Andrew Crosby and Jeffrey Monaghan, the authors of “Policing Indigenous Movements: Dissent and the Security State.” The police compiled “protester profiles” of 89 individuals identified as posing a “criminal threat” — the report noted that the events most attended by these protesters were those “opposing natural resource development, particularly pipeline and shale gas expansion.”
Within a week of Trudeau’s November 2016 approval of the Trans Mountain expansion, his Cabinet was preparing him for a crisis on the scale of Standing Rock, a document Crosby obtained via public information request shows. The clerk of the Privy Council, who acts as a deputy to the prime minister, sent a memo to Trudeau, marked “secret,” titled “Approval Process for the Dakota Access Pipeline.” “Following the recent approval of the TransMountain Expansion Pipeline,” the memo notes, “a number of Indigenous stakeholders have drawn parallels to Standing Rock, indicating that there would be similar protests if TMX goes ahead.”
[Dan Wallace, of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation on Quadra Island, is tackled and handcuffed by RCMP officers after attempting to talk to a young man that locked himself to a piece of heavy equipment being delivered to Kinder Morgan in Burnaby, B.C., on Monday March 19, 2018. Wallace was released a short time later without being charged. Numerous protesters who blockaded an entrance - defying a court order - were arrested earlier in the day while protesting the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)Dan Wallace, of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation on Quadra Island, is tackled and handcuffed by RCMP officers after attempting to talk to a young man who locked himself to a piece of heavy equipment being delivered to Kinder Morgan in Burnaby, British Columbia, on March 19, 2018. Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP]The Canadian Security Intelligence Service distributed its own assessment of Trans Mountain, also obtained by Crosby, which identified several U.S. developments that had potential to impact Canada’s tar sands ambitions. In a section marked “violent confrontations and resource development,” the document references the ongoing protests at Standing Rock, asserting that “several violent confrontations between law enforcement and pipeline opponents have flared up since September resulting in hundreds of arrests and millions of dollars of damage to corporate equipment.”“While we cannot publicly disclose our investigational interests or methodologies, we can say that CSIS’s threat assessment for the energy sector remains constant,” CSIS spokesperson Tahera Mufti told The Intercept in a statement.
RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Janelle Shoihet told the Intercept, “The RCMP is an impartial party in these demonstrations, meaning that we monitor demonstrations to ensure the safety of everyone and will take action on a case-by-case basis, with a focus on enforcement should there be any criminal activities that pose a threat to the safety of individuals or property.”
The prime minister’s office forwarded a query about the Privy Council document to Radan, the spokesperson for Canada’s natural resources minister. “The right to peaceful protest is at the foundation of our rights and freedoms in Canada but we expect people to express their views peacefully and in accordance with the law,” Radan said.
To Monaghan, the focus on criminality is a red herring intended to discredit resistance movements that challenge the interests of the Canadian state. “This has nothing to do with specific criminal activity,” he said. “They might talk about it in terms of TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures] or use other jargon, but what worries them is actually that these social movements are being extremely successful at swaying public opinion and asserting Indigenous land claims.”
5-final-1531496422Map: Soohee ChoPreparations in the Pacific NorthwestIf the Trans Mountain expansion is built, giant oil tankers will carry a portion of the oil through the hook-shaped Salish Sea, which separates Washington state and Vancouver Island, and into the Pacific Ocean. The area is home to an iconic pod of orcas, whose dwindling population has been attributed in part to noisy engines that make locating prey difficult. With the pipeline, tanker traffic through the orcas’ habitat could increase by a factor of seven. From there, some boats may continue to Asia, while others will likely head to California, home of the refineries best equipped to handle the sludgy oil.
Another portion of the oil could travel via a branch line known as the Puget Sound pipeline, which delivers fuel along a 69-mile route to four refineries in Ferndale and Anacortes, Washington. Financial disclosure documents filed by Kinder Morgan indicate there’s potential for the Puget Sound pipeline’s capacity to be expanded from 240,000 to 500,000 barrels a day. Environmental organizations in Washington have pledged to resist any expanded transport of tar sands oil through the region.A May 2017 field analysis report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence Analysis and seven fusion centers, including the one in Washington, set the stage for U.S.-based surveillance in the wake of Trans Mountain’s approval. It singled out construction of the pipeline as a development that could lead to “an increased threat of violence in the coming months from environmental rights extremists against pipeline-related entities in the Midwest and Western United States,” as well as “enhanced sharing of violent TTPs between US and Canadian environmental rights extremists.”
[Kat Roivas, who is opposed to the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, stands at an access gate at the company's property near an area where work is taking place, in Burnaby, B.C., on Monday April 9, 2018. The Houston, Texas, based company announced Sunday it has suspended all non-essential activities and related spending on the pipeline expansion that would carry Alberta bitumen to an export terminal near Vancouver. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)Kat Roivas, who is opposed to the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, stands at an access gate at Kinder Morgan’s property in Burnaby, British Columbia, on April 9, 2018. Photo: Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP]On March 8, John Gargett, of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office Division of Emergency Management, distributed an article published in the Bellingham Herald titled “This Could Be Like Standing Rock,” which described an upcoming protest against Trans Mountain planned in British Columbia. In the email, sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and sheriff’s department personnel, Gargett wrote, “We should be aware that we do have the Kinder Morgan pipeline, storage and stations here in our county (as well as Skagit) that serve the refineries.”“The Sheriff’s Office has been tracking the event for a few weeks now,” Lt. Steven Gatterman replied, copying the Washington State Patrol. “Several ride-sharing posts have appeared indicating people will be traveling to BC from the Seattle and Bellingham areas,” he added. “The biggest threat to our area may be where these travelers land if they are denied entry into Canada.”Twenty sheriff’s deputies and 20 state troopers were designated to respond to any protests that sprung up along the border (none ever did). Gatterman added that the Sheriff’s Crime Analysis Center was searching for “intelligence information.”“I find their actions outrageous, but I’m not surprised,” said Jamie Sayegh, a water protector from Bellingham who was part of a group that drove to the protest in British Columbia. “The truth of the matter is that our political system routinely allows corporations to use the government to defend the so-called rights of companies like Kinder Morgan to destroy our lands, our water, our lives, and trample the rights of Indigenous people.”Gatterman also zeroed in on a group that had staged an anti-pipeline protest in the area in February 2017 that blocked traffic on Interstate 5. The group, Red Line Salish Sea, formerly known as the Bellingham #NoDAPL Coalition, is now organizing against Trans Mountain. Gatterman’s email to state and federal law enforcement inaccurately claimed the group was responsible for vandalism to a Kinder Morgan facility in a neighboring county in 2016. In an interview with The Intercept, Gatterman acknowledged that his note might have been mistaken and the incident he referenced was likely one carried out by a separate group.
“We are working in solidarity with the tribal groups and their nations that are standing against the destruction of their homelands,” said Michelle Vendiola, a Walker River Paiute tribal member from Washington’s Lummi Reservation and a founder of Red Line Salish Sea. “We have brought people up to British Columbia whenever the call is put out that that’s what’s needed.”
Vendiola is intimately familiar with Whatcom County law enforcement officials’ monitoring of anti-pipeline activists. Local prosecutors obtained a search warrant to collect private information from the Facebook page of the Bellingham #NoDAPL Coalition as part of an investigation into the I-5 blockade that ultimately led to criminal charges against Vendiola and six others.
“It’s crazy to think about how prepared they are getting to try to quash dissent here in Washington,” Vendiola said.
As March wore on, law enforcement’s efforts to prepare for large protests continued. An email Gatterman sent a few weeks after the Vancouver-area protests provided instructions for around 50 role players who would pretend to be protesters during a joint training exercise at Whatcom Community College involving around 30 officers from the sheriff’s department and the Washington State Patrol.
“Some of you will be carrying signs, some of you will be locked together in what is called a ‘sleeping dragon,’” Gatterman wrote. “We are looking for a few role players to dress in all black to simulate an anarchist group. This group also covers their faces with masks or bandanas.”
Gatterman told The Intercept that the I-5 protest, as well as another road blockade in May 2016 in protest of a Trump rally, had motivated the department’s response to the Trans Mountain mobilization and inspired them to set up the training. He said the sheriff’s office wanted to be sure officers knew how to safely handle techniques like the sleeping dragon, which were used in both protests.
After the I-5 protest, Gatterman said, his office had also assembled a special team to manage public demonstrations and had requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Center for Domestic Preparedness conduct a Field Force Operations training on how to police protests. According to a roster for the FEMA training, obtained via a public records request, roughly 40 state and local law enforcement officers participated, as well as 19 CBP officers.
“There’s work on formations as far as how to execute safe techniques — arrest techniques,” Gatterman said of the FEMA training. “They show some examples of things like tripods hanging from trees and overpasses, just to get you awareness of the different things you might encounter. There’s talk about throwing acid on officers, urine, feces, things like that.” A summary of the training obtained via records request describes it as providing the “skills necessary to prepare for and successfully mitigate threat incidents involving civil disorder,” including through the “use of riot control agents and less lethal munitions.”
Whatcom County’s records officer withheld a single document in response to The Intercept’s records requests, calling nondisclosure of it “essential to effective law enforcement”: a May 11, 2017, email from a county undersheriff to staff members concerning a National Sheriffs’ Association webinar called “Protest on the Prairie.” Cass County, North Dakota, Sheriff Paul Laney led a webinar by the same name on May 7, 2017, in which he shared lessons with police across the country on how North Dakota law enforcement dealt with resistance to the Dakota Access pipeline, an investigation by DeSmog and MuckRock revealed last year. “We viewed the webinar for training and informational purposes,” Whatcom Undersheriff Jeff Parks told The Intercept.
Gatterman said that outside of the British Columbia protest, the sheriff’s department had not actively monitored organizing against Trans Mountain. The agency’s response to the March protest involved examining what he described as “open source information” including public-facing Facebook pages.
Kurt Boyle, director of Washington fusion center, said that besides reviewing Gatterman’s emails forwarded by the state patrol, the fusion center took very little action in response to the Trans Mountain protests. “The only time we would actually take a look at it would be if there was the potential for some violence or vandalism or some attack on equipment that may cause danger to people or destroy things,” he said. “We don’t monitor social media.”
“Due to our robust capabilities, U.S. Customs and Border Protection frequently works with other federal, state and local agencies on many different missions,” CBP spokesperson Daniel Hetlage wrote in a statement to The Intercept. The Washington State Patrol did not respond to a request for comment.
[Members of the First Nation Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish and Musqueam bands paddle in a traditional canoe during a Thanksgiving protest in North Vancouver, British Columbia October 14, 2013. The group are protesting the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion by energy company Kinder-Morgan and the increase of tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet. REUTERS/Andy Clark (CANADA - Tags: CIVIL UNREST ENERGY ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY) - GM1E9AF092501]
A Radically New LandscapeJust as Standing Rock shifted public understanding of the extremes to which governments would go to support fossil fuel companies, so has the Trans Mountain fight.Clayton Thomas-Muller, who works with the climate justice organization 350, has been involved in fighting the tar sands for over a decade. “We’re in a radically new landscape, with an entirely new campaign that needs to emerge. The federal government of Canada has demonstrated just complete hypocrisy in the purchase of this pipeline using public funds,” he said. “To paraphrase Vice President Bob Chamberlain of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs … a foreign oil corporation based in Houston gave the sovereign nation of Canada an ultimatum, and Canada buckled.”So far, one of the largest producers in the Alberta tar sands region, Suncor, has shrugged at Trudeau’s multibillion-dollar gamble, pointing out that the “normal processes didn’t work very well.” The company has declined to commit to any new investments.The Canadian government is hoping to find another buyer for the pipeline before its deal with Kinder Morgan is finalized at the end of July. The government has sweetened the deal by offering to indemnify any buyer against losses caused by construction delays and guarantee a rate of return if the project’s future owner is unable to complete construction because of legal decisions. Still, it’s unclear that they’ll be successful in selling it until after the pipeline is built.If they don’t, then the Standing Rock of the north will be a battle where the line between the interests of the police and the pipeline owner will be virtually indistinguishable.=<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-western-canada-trans-mountain-1.5332365">https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-western-canada-trans-mountain-1.5332365</a>no lnx pixCBC
Trudeau extends olive branch to Western Canada, vows to build Trans Mountain despite oppositionJohn Paul Tasker · CBC News · Posted: Oct 23, 2019 3:56 PM ET | Last Updated: October 23
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes his way to a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Wednesday. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Two days after much of Western Canada rejected the Liberals on election day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today vowed to be more sensitive to the needs of Alberta and Saskatchewan and to build the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline in the face of entrenched opposition from environmentalists.
Trudeau told a press conference in Ottawa this afternoon he clearly has to do more to earn the trust of people in the two resource-rich provinces. He said that work will start with ensuring more pipeline capacity is brought online so that oil producers can sell their product abroad at prices closer to the going world rate.
While Trudeau campaigned on a promise of more aggressive action to fight climate change, he said nothing has changed with respect to the government-owned Trans Mountain project and insisted it will be built after years of legal wrangling.
'In the interest of Canada'"We made a decision to move forward on the pipeline because it was in the interest of Canada to do so, because the environment and the economy need to go together. We will be continuing with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion," he said.
"Albertans and people in Saskatchewan have faced very difficult years over these past few years because of the global commodity prices, because of the challenges they are facing. For a long time they weren't able to get their resources to markets other than the U.S. We are moving forward to solve those challenges."Lengths of pipe for the Trans Mountain expansion project are stacked at Edson, Alta. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)If built, the 1,150-kilometre expansion project would nearly triple the existing pipeline's capacity to 890,000 barrels a day. It would transport product directly from Alberta's oilpatch to coastal B.C. for shipping to markets in Asia.
Trudeau has promised any profits from the existing pipeline — pegged at some $500 million a year in corporate tax revenue alone — and the planned expansion will be used to fund green-friendly initiatives to help tackle climate change.
The federal Liberal government has twice approved the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion. Ottawa bought the project from its original U.S. proponent, Kinder Morgan, in 2018 after that company threatened to end all essential spending on the project in response to outspoken opposition from B.C.'s provincial NDP government.
Even after a stunning court decision in August 2018 quashed the Liberal cabinet's initial approvals, Trudeau promised to build the project "the right way." After another consultation process with Indigenous peoples and an improved environmental review, cabinet again approved the project in June 2019. The Federal Court of Appeal is currently reviewing an appeal by Indigenous groups of that second approval.
Trans Mountain's fate not up to MPsWhile Trudeau might have to rely in this minority Parliament on vote support from the NDP and Green caucuses — two entities that have expressed strident opposition to Trans Mountain — the project's future does not depend on any one vote in the House of Commons.
In Canada, major natural resources projects like pipelines go through a regulatory review process led by the Canadian Energy Regulator (or, as it was known until recently, the National Energy Board) . It falls to cabinet, and cabinet alone, to give the project a final "yea" or "nay." And while those decisions are subject to judicial review, it's not up to individual parliamentarians to decide whether a particular project is approved.

Power & Politics?@PnPCBCAsked why Liberals were wiped out in Alta. and Sask, @JustinTrudeau said: “Why did this happen is not the central issue we have. The central issue for me is how do we move forward in a way that responds to the concerns that Albertans and Saskatchewanians have clearly expressed.”
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Trudeau said he has spoken recently with Western leaders like Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi about how the federal government can support a region that has struggled with slumping commodity prices and constrained export capacity.
"I will be reaching out specifically to westerners to hear from them ... to talk about how we can make sure that the concerns, the very real concerns of Albertans, are being addressed and reflected by this government," Trudeau said.
"This is something that I take very seriously, as a responsibility, to ensure that we are moving forward in ways that benefit all Canadians. I will be listening and working with a broad range of people to ensure that happens."
Trudeau rules out coalition, promises gender equity in new cabinetAppointing a western senator to cabinet would be 'counterproductive', independent senator warnsManitoba premier stands by federal carbon tax opposition, but says he wants to work with OttawaWhen asked if he'd appoint ministers from the two provinces, Trudeau said that is something he is now "reflecting on."
Trudeau said that not all past federal governments had representation from every corner of the country. He said there are other approaches that could offer regional representation; he didn't say what they are.
Some observers have suggested Trudeau could appoint new Western Canadian representatives to the Senate and have them sit as cabinet ministers to give Alberta and Saskatchewan a voice at the table. Former prime minister Stephen Harper appointed financier Michael Fortier to the Senate to give his government more representation from Quebec.
But Trudeau pointed out that the Senate appointment process is not like it was in the past, as nominations are now governed by an independent, merit-based system.
There is a precedent for naming people who do not hold a seat in Parliament to cabinet.
For example, former prime minister Jean Chrétien appointed Pierre Pettigrew and Stéphane Dion to cabinet. However, in both instances, the two men also agreed to run in upcoming byelections in safe Montreal-area seats.
WATCH | From The National, Trudeau reaches out to the West, commits to pipeline:

WatchTrudeau reaches out to the West, commits to pipeline5 days ago 02:18 Turn captions onPrime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion as one way he will work to improve his relationship with Western Canada. 2:18John Paul TaskerParliamentary Bureau
John Paul (J.P.) Tasker is a reporter in the CBC's Parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. He can be reached at john.tasker@cbc.ca. dn 619<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><li class="hidden-xs" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: none; padding: 0px 0px 23px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.33;"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/6/19/headlines/indigenous_groups_in_canada_prepare_to_fight_trans_mountain_pipeline_extension" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px;">Indigenous Groups in Canada Prepare to Fight Trans Mountain Pipeline Extension</a></li></ul>whoohoo, trend?  maybe temp
Canadian Court Halts Expansion of Trans Mountain Oil Pipeline
The Trans Mountain oil plant in Edmonton, Alberta.]pixBy Ian AustenAug. 30, 2018
OTTAWA — A Canadian court on Thursday froze plans to expand an oil pipeline that the government is about to purchase, ruling that the government’s National Energy Board had not adequately consulted with Indigenous people along the pipeline’s route or assessed the project’s potential effects on the waters off British Columbia.While the practical effect of the decision may be a comparatively short construction delay, the ruling added fuel to an already incendiary debate over the Trans Mountain pipeline that links Alberta’s oil sands to an oil tanker port near Vancouver, British Columbia. The pipeline also branches off to refineries in Washington State.After the pipeline’s owner, Kinder Morgan of Houston, abandoned its plans to add a second pipeline along the existing Trans Mountain route in April, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government stepped in to buy the 715-mile pipeline for 4.5 billion Canadian dollars, or about $3.4 billion. The sale is expected to be completed soon, possibly this week.Environmentalists and some Indigenous groups immediately called the ruling a major victory, and some of them urged Mr. Trudeau’s government to give up on plans for the expansion, which has drawn widespread protests driven by environmental concerns.“It’s a huge court case win,” said Chief Lee Spahan of the Coldwater Indian Band, one of the groups that brought the court challenge. “We want our cultural and traditional ways respected.”The ruling was a setback for Mr. Trudeau, not least because he has repeatedly vowed to consult with Indigenous groups as part of efforts to make amends for past injustices.Mr. Trudeau’s political critics on the right charged that he had bungled the project.“This is just a complete failure for the Trudeau government’s handling of the energy sector,” Andrew Scheer, the leader of the Conservative Party, told reporters. “This is just another gut punch.”But Bill Morneau, the federal finance minister, told reporters in Toronto that the government would still complete the expansion project.“We are absolutely committed to moving ahead with this project,” Mr. Morneau told a news conference in Toronto. “What the decision today asked us to do is to respond promptly.”Mr. Trudeau’s backing of the pipeline, which is not universally popular among his supporters, was to some degree a move to persuade Alberta to join his national carbon-tax program. Alberta’s energy industry, particularly the oil sands, is a major carbon emitter, making the province’s cooperation vital.On Thursday night, however, Rachel Notley, the province’s premier, said that Alberta was withdrawing from the carbon-tax program until construction began on the Trans Mountain extension.“I am announcing that with Trans Mountain halted until the federal government gets its act together, Alberta is pulling out of the federal climate plan,” Ms. Notley said in a speech. “And let’s be clear: Without Alberta, that plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.”
Ms. Notley blamed “successive federal governments” for the situation and said that she had told Mr. Trudeau to immediately appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. She also wants the federal Parliament to hold an emergency session to “assert its authority.”
The case against the expansion was brought by several Indigenous groups, the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby, British Columbia, and two environmental groups.
While most of the consultation with Indigenous groups took place under a previous government led by Conservatives, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday found that a final phase during 2016, Mr. Trudeau’s first full year in office, “fell well short of the mark set by the Supreme Court of Canada.”
Specifically, the court found, “very few responses were provided by Canada’s representatives in the consultation meetings.”
It added that “when a response was provided it was brief, and did not further two-way dialogue.”
But improving the process may be a straightforward matter.
The court said that the new set of consultations it had ordered would most likely be “brief and efficient while ensuring it is meaningful,” making for “a short delay” in the pipeline project.
Gordon Christie, a professor of law at the University of British Columbia and a prominent authority on Indigenous legal issues, said that it might take only a few months for the government to engage in more meaningful consultations with Indigenous groups.“This has nothing to do with not building a pipeline,” he said from Vancouver. “All they’re required to do is go back, review the concerns and show that they are going to take them seriously and respond in some way. These are not negotiations.”Nor, he added, does the ruling give Indigenous groups the power to shut down the pipeline project.Chief Spahan said that the Coldwater Band was looking for specific assurances that the expansion would not lead to oil leaks that threatened its drinking water, which comes from wells.“When they moved forward, they totally disregarded Coldwater,” he said. “It was like stabbing us in the back.”
Many people in Canada’s energy industry said they were frustrated and disappointed by the prospect of a further delay to the pipeline expansion.
“We’re just tired of this stuff,” said Chris Bloomer, the president and chief executive of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association. “We, as an industry, just sit here and go: We’re responsible, we’re safe, what more can we do?”
The expansion will put a second pipeline alongside about 610 miles of the 715-mile Trans Mountain pipeline, which opened in 1953. It will increase the system’s capacity to 890,000 barrels a day, from 300,000, at a cost of $7.4 billion.
Most of the oil sent through the Trans Mountain pipeline heads to the United States, mainly through a spur pipeline. Supporters of the expansion argue that it will open Asia as a second market for Canadian oil.
Follow Ian Austen=<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=e83fb9a4cf&e=c2e8fdabfa" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Canadian Supreme Court Rejects BC City’s Bid to Stop Trans Mountain Pipeline</a>big fires now?goia john  and brodbent junkey --> 100 tanker tar sand oil? kpfa 818
<a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/tanker-superhighway/">https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/tanker-superhighway/</a>no lnx mapsTar Sands Tanker Superhighway Threatens Pacific Coast WatersPublished: 06-26-2018
Download: PDF 
Summary ResultsThe proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP) would increase the number of oil tankers carrying tar sands from Vancouver, Canada through the Salish Sea and down the Pacific Coast of the U.S.This report presents a map and analysis of 176 oil tanker and barge departures from the Westridge Marine Terminal in British Columbia from 2013 to the beginning of 2018.Over half (94) of those departures then sailed the length of the Pacific Coast to the port of Long Beach, California, with significant numbers heading to destinations in Washington State (36), the San Francisco Bay Area (23), and various locations in Asia and Hawaii (17).These results indicate that while the physical pipeline may stop at the water’s edge, a diluted bitumen spill remains a risk for coastal communities all along the Pacific Coast — from British Columbia to Washington to Oregon to California.Studies have estimated a 10%-29% chance of a “worst case” tanker spill (>100,000 barrels) over the next 50 years.The endangered Southern Resident orca population could be driven toward extinction by the increased ship noise, and risk of oil spills and ship strikes, resulting from TMEP.Coastal communities that rely on fishing and tourism have suffered billions of dollars in economic damages following previous catastrophic marine oil spills.The $60 billion coastal economy of Washington, Oregon and California currently supports over 150,000 jobs in commercial fishing and over 525,000 jobs in coastal tourism.In the British Columbia Lower Mainland, industries that rely on a clean coastline employ more than 320,000 people. Studies have found that a major oil spill in Washington would cost $10.8 billion, and one in Vancouver would cost $1.2 billion (CAD).IntroductionThe existing Trans Mountain pipeline currently transports ~300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from Alberta, Canada, to the Pacific Coast. A majority of this oil arrives to refineries in Washington State via the Puget Sound Pipeline, but around 9-27% reaches the Westridge Marine Terminal (WMT) in Burnaby, British Columbia, where it is loaded onto oil tankers and barges for transport to refineries and other locations along the Pacific Coast and across the Pacific to Asia.[1]
The proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP) would expand the capacity of this system to 890,000 bpd,[2] and would increase the number of tankers leaving WMT by a factor of almost seven — from 5 per month to as many as 34 per month, or more than 400 a year.[3] Much of the oil transported by TMEP is expected to be diluted bitumen, or dilbit, extracted from Alberta’s tar sands.
While any oil spill into water is harmful and extremely difficult to clean up, the unique properties of dilbit could make clean-up even more difficult than a conventional oil spill.[4] Furthermore, dilbit is one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet, with total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions more than 30% higher than standard crude oil.[5] The tar sands are currently hampered by a lack of pipeline capacity and so the proposed construction of TMEP, Keystone XL and the Line 3 expansion pipelines could facilitate further investment in tar sands extraction and lead to greater global carbon emissions.[6]
Numerous reports have warned of the threat to the waters of the Salish Sea in British Columbia and Washington, and the Pacific Coast from increased marine shipments of tar sands oil.[7][8][9] Research has shown that since 2010, the U.S. Oil refinery in Tacoma, WA has received ~20 shipments of tar sands oil per year (>1.5 million barrels per year) via articulated tug barge (ATB)[10] traveling from WMT.[11][12] Other reports have found that much of the tar sands leaving the WMT is shipped by tanker to refineries in California that have capacity to process heavy crude oil.[13]Greenpeace and Mosquito Fleet activists block a Kinder Morgan barge from entering the company’s Seattle facility by locking themselves to the pier and displaying banners.A movement to oppose the construction of TMEP has arisen, led by several First Nations who have emphasized their lack of consent for the project, inadequate consultation by the Canadian government, and violations of Indigenous sovereignty.[14] Recently, Trans Mountain pipeline owner Kinder Morgan reached a deal with the Canadian government to sell the existing pipeline for $4.5 billion (CAD) and build the TMEP. This deal allows Kinder Morgan to walk away but potentially leaves Canadian taxpayers on the hook for a troubled and controversial project.[15]
In this briefing, we present a visualization of 176 tar sands tanker (and some ATB) shipments leaving WMT from 2013 to 2018, showing the paths taken by those tankers down the Pacific Coast to refineries in the San Francisco and Long Beach areas.
Oil Tanker TrafficThe goal of this report is to illustrate which areas are at risk from increased tanker traffic and which destinations have received oil shipments originating from WMT. Using ship location data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), we were able to identify 176 departures from WMT from January 2013 to February 2018.[16] In Figure 1, we map the tracks taken by those 176 departures from WMT to their next destination.[17]...===</div>