Tell Government to Protect our Waters and our Climate: Reject the Energy East Pipeline!
Energy East threatens hundreds of communities and their drinking water sources with the risk of a tar sands oil spill. In addition to numerous water crossings around Kenora, the existing pipeline runs for hundreds of kilometers under marshes and sensitive wetlands in our area, and any oil spill here would be catastrophic not only to the local environment, but to our way of life and our $482 million regional tourism economy.
Large spills are a statistical certainty with a pipeline this size. TransCanada’s claim of 99.9994% safety seems outstanding, but at 1.1 million barrels per day, or 174,900,000 litres per day, a 0.0006% failure rate still means the loss of 104,940 litres per day, or more than 38.3 million litres spilling from Energy East per year! Just one spill from Energy East –such as into Shoal Lake, the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water, or the Winnipeg River – could devastate sensitive ecosystems, poison drinking water supplies, damage local economies, and harm Canadians’ health.
Kenora residents, like most Ontarians, would receive all of the risks, but few benefits from this project. Canadians overall have little to gain from this project, with 90% or more of Energy East’s oil being exported unrefined. Canadians would barely use any of this pipeline’s oil. This is not a made-in-Canada energy solution, and it is a project that would contribute an additional 32 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, thereby undermining other Canadian efforts toward mitigating climate change.
Energy East’s risks far outweigh any perceived benefits, and we ask that you commit to calling for better alternatives to meet our future energy needs.
No signatures yet. Be the first one!
Comment