Canada’s National Energy Board is about to review TransCanada’s proposed Energy East pipeline to send toxic tar sands bitumen from Alberta to the Atlantic Ocean – and we need your help to make sure the government can’t use a sham review process created during the Harper era to pass this pipeline. ¹ 

Energy East would become the biggest pipeline in North America. It would carry 1.1 million barrels of toxic bitumen to the coast every day, threaten communities and waterways in 6 provinces, and pump 32 million tonnes of global warming pollution into the atmosphere  every year – that’s more than the total emissions from some provinces. ^2 3

The Harper Conservatives wanted to use the National Energy Board’s review to persuade the public that this pipeline is safe. They even changed the rules to make the National Energy Board exclude climate impacts and voices from communities across Canada. ^4 5 While the new Liberal government has promised to overhaul the pipeline review process, it’s unclear whether the Energy East pipeline will be reviewed under the old process or the new.

If enough of us speak out now, we can force the chair of the National Energy Board, Peter Watson, to choose: either include climate impacts and community voices in his review, or lose all credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the Canadian people.

We need a real debate about Canada’s energy future. Would you believe that the tar sands only account for about 2% of Canada’s economy? ⁶ The belief that the tar sands are vital to our economy is an illusion – an illusion created and sustained by government and industry spending millions on misleading PR campaigns.

We’ve seen in BC how the National Energy Board’s review of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline was used to justify a project that’s been rejected by British Columbians. Without major changes, the National Energy Board’s review of the Energy East project will be a piece of theatre in the government-industry PR campaign for this mammoth pipeline.

We can stop their plan to use a sham review process to pass the Energy East pipeline – but we need to speak out, before it begins.

Notes:

1. New report says Energy East Pipeline a disaster in waiting
   http://www.canadians.org/media/new-report-says-energy-east-pipeline-disaster-waiting 
2. Route Map – Transcanada
   http://www.energyeastpipeline.com/home/route-map/ 
3. Climate Implications of the Proposed Energy East Pipeline
   http://www.pembina.org/pub/2519 
4. Energy board changes pipeline complaint rules
   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/energy-board-changes-pipeline-complaint-rules/article10824925/ 
5. Energy East Pipeline Project – List of Issues
   http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rthnb/pplctnsbfrthnb/nrgyst/nrgystlstfsss-eng.html 
6. Breaking news: Canadians vastly overestimate the role of the tar sands in Canada’s economy
   http://environmentaldefence.ca/blog/breaking-news-canadians-vastly-overestimate-role-tar-sands-in-canada%E2%80%99s-economy