I want to share with you a message I got from Kai Nagata who works for Dogwood Initiative with a job title of Energy & Democracy Director. You may be aware that last fall Dogwood mailed oil samples to show risks of shipping oil in its provocative letter containing a sample of heavy oil to homes across British Columbia.
Background Brief:
The Alberta election unofficial voter turnout was 58.1% New Democratic Party (NDP 41%) creamed the PC (28%) and WRP (24%) in a "miracle on the Prairies".
I I ask you to read Kai Nagata's message and help convince Alberta's new premier Rachel Notley to set up a fair and independent review of Kinder Morgan’s crude oil pipeline and tanker project.
What a strange world to wake up in.
After 44 years of unbroken conservative rule, Stephen Harper’s political heartland has been swept by the New Democrats. Alberta’s Enbridge-lobbyist-in-chief Jim Prentice has resigned. And their new premier says she won’t support the Northern Gateway pipeline and oil tanker proposal.
Rachel Notley’s majority victory is an earthquake for energy politics in Canada. Not only does the NDP leader think Northern Gateway is a lost cause, she sees no point in pursuing TransCanada’s Keystone XL proposal either. But make no mistake: the government she’s inheriting still depends heavily on oil sands revenues. Notley wants more “market access” for more Alberta bitumen. That’s why she supports Kinder Morgan.
Luckily, it’s not up to her. It’s up to the citizens of British Columbia – and the First Nations along the pipeline and tanker route. Send Alberta Premier Rachel Notley a message today. Sign our BC Review petition and please, share it with your friends:
Share on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/... Share on Twitter: http://bit.ly/...
British Columbians need a fair and independent review so we can dig into the true environmental risks and economic tradeoffs of Kinder Morgan’s proposal. Then we can make a final decision as a province. This is not something we’re going to hand over to politicians in Ottawa – or Edmonton.
That said, it’s refreshing to hear the premier of Alberta saying out loud what most people in the oil patch already acknowledge: Northern Gateway is stalled, maybe for good. Watching Rachel Notley’s victory speech last night, I got the impression she’s a capable and intelligent leader. Now we need to send Notley a signal she’ll understand: Kinder Morgan is not going to come waltzing through B.C. just because she says so.
More than 15,000 of us are calling for a fair and independent review of the Kinder Morgan proposal. Can you help us get to 20,000 by the end of the week?
With your help I’m confident we’ll be able to shift the political math on Kinder Morgan the way we have around Enbridge Northern Gateway. Add your name to the chorus of British Columbians like you calling for a fair, independent review of Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain expansion proposal, and share with everyone you know: http://BCreview.ca/
We’ll keep you posted!
Kai Nagata
P.S. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see such massive change in Alberta. I covered the first Orange Wave as a CTV reporter in Quebec, and the NDP’s performance last night suggests that wasn’t a fluke. Rachel Notley is a talented politician who shows more common sense on pipelines than her predecessors, but that doesn’t mean she’s right about Kinder Morgan. Send Notley a message by signing and sharing the BC Review petition today:
http://BCreview.ca/
Share on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/... Share on Twitter: http://bit.ly/...
Kinder Morgan is featured in his January, 2015 story from Reuters, U.S. crude oil pipeline projects: Kinder Morgan acquiring Hiland Crude in which are detailed an updated list of 81 projects worth watching. It claims to own an interest in or operate approximately 84,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals.
What happens between Canada and Kinder Morgan does have consequences for what happens inside the U.S. as Kinder Morgan expands its control of land and sea resources throughout all of North America.
I say we should support Dogwood Initiative in its work to rally new and stronger accountability for Alberta's new premier Rachel Notley to set up a fair and independent review of Kinder Morgan’s crude oil pipeline and tanker project.
Thanks for your attention to the next step in the process that Kossak James L for Daily Kos Elections was live blogging about yesterday in his outstanding diary Daily Kos Elections Alberta provincial election liveblog #1 in which he said the "left-wing NDP in position to deal a crushing blow to the long-ruling Tories..." was "...the most exciting campaign witnessed since the 2008 Presidential race!" That next step is helping grassroots Canadians reign in the excesses of the too big for our own good transnationals of the dirty oil oligarchy.
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