A turning point for the Spirit Bear Coast

Dear Ray, Tell BC Premier Christy Clark to say No to the Northern Gateway pipeline Premier Christy Clark has just announced that the risks of a tar sands spill outweigh the benefits. Urge Premier Clark to ban tar sands pipelines and oil tankers along the Spirit Bear Coast! We’ve reached a potential turning point in our campaign to stop the Northern Gateway tar sands pipeline from destroying British Columbia’s spectacular Spirit Bear Coast. For the very first time, B.C. Premier Christy Clark has publicly said that the environmental risks of a tar sands oil spill outweigh the economic benefits. Now that that Premier Clark has voiced her concerns about this would-be devastating project, we must build on the momentum and ask her to take a decisive stand. Call on Premier Christy Clark to go the next step and actively oppose the tar sands pipeline and the oil tankers that would endanger the entire Spirit Bear Coast. This ancient coastal rainforest is one of our continent’s last and greatest wild places. It is home to orcas, humpbacks, wolves and some of the very last Spirit Bears on Earth. And its world-class salmon runs have supported the region’s First Nations peoples for thousands of years. The Northern Gateway pipeline could destroy all that forever. The pipeline, proposed by energy giant Enbridge, would carry 500,000 barrels a day of the world’s dirtiest oil from the Alberta tar sands through this irreplaceable wildlife paradise to the Spirit Bear Coast. There, it will be loaded onto supertankers that are forced to navigate through treacherous, wildlife-filled waters, including a channel six times narrower than the passage that sunk the Exxon Valdez! Urge Premier Clark to stand up to Big Oil and reject Enbridge’s destructive pipeline scheme before it’s too late. Premier Clark voiced her concerns just days after federal investigators announced that Enbridge had likely violated two dozen regulations when it spilled more than a million gallons of tar sands oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in 2010 -- the most costly pipeline accident in U.S. history. That spill is a wake-up call that British Columbia ignores at its peril. The Northern Gateway pipeline would put the Spirit Bear Coast one spill away from disaster. More than 70 First Nations are united in total opposition to the pipeline and its oil tanker traffic. But they can’t stave off Enbridge by themselves. That’s why it’s so critical that you send a message to Premier Clark right away. Urge her to respect the wishes of the First Nations and others across British Columbia by saying No to the Northern Gateway pipeline. Sincerely, Frances Beinecke President Natural Resources Defense Council