RELEASE: Oil Change International reacts to approval of Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion and Enbridge Line 3 projects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 29, 2016

CONTACT: Adam Scott, adam@priceofoil.org, +1-416-347-3858

Climate Leaders Don’t Build Pipelines

In response to the Federal Cabinet’s approval of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion project and Enbridge’s Line 3 project – as well as a final rejection of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, Adam Scott of Oil Change International (Canada) released the following statement:

“By approving these new pipelines, Prime Minister Trudeau has kicked the legs out from under Canada’s new climate change strategy. Canada has signaled to the world that it will fail to meet its Paris climate commitments.

“With this decision, Prime Minister Trudeau has squandered his credibility on climate change, environmental protection, and Indigenous rights. Citizens will hold him accountable to his broken promises and will work even harder to stop these dangerous projects.

“Allowing long-lived fossil fuel projects projects is neither responsible nor sustainable.

“Massive new export pipelines will substantially increase Canada’s climate pollution for decades into the future at a time when our emissions must drop quickly. Meeting Canada’s obligations under the Paris Agreement requires emissions to peak now.

“If built, these projects would facilitate huge growth in the tar sands, increasing total greenhouse gas pollution by as much as 277 million tonnes of CO2 every year – equivalent to the pollution from 58 million cars on the road.

“There is no need for any additional pipeline capacity. Oil Change International recently released a report showing how the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is misleading Canadians on the need for new pipelines.*

“Oil Change International will continue to support communities fighting to ensure that in spite of this decision, these projects will never get built. We stand with more than 100 First Nations and Tribes across the continent opposed to new pipelines, and will work to support the rights of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent.”