05) STOPPING ENBRIDGE JUST A START

People's Voice Editorial

     Despite a huge corporate propaganda blitz and 100% support from the Alberta and federal Tory governments, Enbridge Corp.'s Northern Gateway pipeline project is in serious jeopardy. The hearings into the project have shown powerful opposition from First Nations, environmental groups, local governments, scientists and concerned citizens. Revelations of the company's incompetent response to a huge oil leak in Michigan two years ago make it clear that this project simply cannot be built without endangering vast areas of wilderness and coastlines.

     Yet the fight is far from over. This month, anti-pipeline activists are extending solidarity to indigenous people in northern British Columbia, where plans are underway to clear hundreds of kilometers of forests, streams, and wetlands along the proposed route.

     The defeat of the Northern Gateway project would be a huge victory for Aboriginal peoples struggling to protect their traditional territories, for communities along the pipeline route facing ecological dangers, and for all Canadians who want an economy based on people's needs, not corporate greed.

     But the drive for profits through extraction of energy resources by transnational capital and imperialist governments will continue. Even if Enbridge loses this round, other projects are on the drawing board, such as the expansion of Kinder Morgan's pipeline to Vancouver. This project would fill a tanker ship every day, with potentially disastrous consequences for the people and environment around Vancouver's harbour.

     An immediate moratorium on expansion of pipelines and energy extraction projects would give Canadians time to engage in a real debate over the future of this industry. We must win the fight to block the Northern Gateway project, but that will only be the first step.

(The above article is from the August 1-31, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)