Premier must act to protect our economy and environment from oil spills

(Queen’s Park): Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner is pushing Premier Wynne to take a firm stance against Enbridge’s Line 9B oil pipeline.

 

“The Premier is failing to protect the people and places we love by not speaking out against Line 9,” says Schreiner. “Enbridge’s Line 9 risks our economy and our environment with no benefits for Ontario.”

 

Over 570 Green Party supporters have sent the Premier a letter asking her to say no to Enbridge’s Line 9B proposal, which is currently before the National Energy Board for approval.

 

“Line 9 threatens our health, safety and environment with a mix of toxic chemicals,” says Schreiner. “Cleaning up dilbit spills will be costly to our environment, to our economy and our health.There are no clear economic benefits of this proposal to Ontario.”

 

The Green Party is particularly concerned with Enbridge’s proposal to ship dilbit--raw tar sands bitumen mixed with chemicals--through a 38-year-old pipeline not designed to handle such corrosive material. Enbridge’s Line 9 runs between Sarnia and Montreal under every major river in Southern Ontario, prime farmland, sensitive ecosystems and populated urban areas.

 

U.S. studies show that pipelines shipping dilbit are more likely to spill because it is more corrosive than conventional crude. Tar sands oil is also harder and more expensive to clean up. Clean up of the Enbridge Line 6B dilbit spill in Michigan is still not complete after three years and over $1 billion in cost.

 

“The provincial government has a responsibility to protect Ontario’s water, environment, economy and communities,” says Schreiner. “The Premier needs to fulfill these responsibilities. We are calling on her to say no to the Line 9B proposal.”

Enbridge Northern Gateway flyover Misleads the public

Enbridge misleads the public about the proposed tanker routes.

On December 8th, 2011, Enbridge uploaded this video to the internet, to show everyone the proposed route for the Northern Gateway Pipelines.

It's purpose was to show the route of the pipeline, or was it?

Many people watched this video and took something very different from it. After watching it online as well as on televised newscasts, many thought "Why is anyone concerned about the route at all? It looks easy as pie!"

That is because the video is grossly innacurate.

As the camera pans down over the Douglas channel and their tiny tanker we see how the representation is not flawed in scale but also very misleading. Missing from the model of the Douglas channel is one thousand square kilometres of islands clogging the passageway to open sea.

Backing up the video, we can see how Enbridge wants you to see the tanker route.

Here is how it should look.

Looking at images of google earth we see what the channel really looks like along with the hundreds of islands it contains.

Here's is how Enbridge wants you to see it. Minus a thousand square kilometres of island hazards.

Finally, here is a marine chart, showing us exactly how the Douglas channel looks to ships navigating the coastline.

And here is how Enbridge would have us see it.

The truth is that piping raw bitumen crude across two mountain ranges, through a monumentally dangerous channel and shipping across the roughest ocean weather in the world puts us all at risk. A risk we can't accept at any price.

Please join us and say no to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline


Please spread widely.

Graphics by Lori Waters.

http://pipeupagainstenbridge.ca/


Want to demand some reality in advertising? Go sign this petition.

http://sumofus.org/campaigns/enbridge/