BC Govt. Dumps Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipeline: "Trust Me Is Not Good Enough In This Case"
Efforts to expand production from the Alberta tar sands suffered a significant setback on Friday when the provincial government of British Columbia rejected a pipeline project because of environmental shortcomings.
In a strongly worded statement, the government of the province said it was not satisfied with the pipeline company's oil spill response plans. The rejection of the pipeline – which was to have given Alberta an outlet to Pacific coast ports and markets in China – further raises the stakes on another controversial tar sands pipeline, Keystone XL.
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British Columbia, in its official submission to a pipeline review panel, said the company had failed to demonstrate an adequate clean-up plan for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. It set five new conditions for the project's approval. "Northern Gateway has presented little evidence about how it will respond in the event of a spill," Christopher Jones, a lawyer representing the province, said in a statement to the federal government panel reviewing the project.
"It is not clear from the evidence that Northern Gateway will in fact be able to respond effectively to spills either from the pipeline itself, or from tankers transporting diluted bitumen," Jones added. Jones said the pipeline would cross over remote and extremely difficult terrain, with pristine rivers that could be devastated in the event of a spill. He said those considerations compelled the province to hold the pipeline company to a higher standard. "Trust me is not good enough in this case."
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jun/01/tar-sands-canada-pipeline-enbridge
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