Annual Energy Futures Report Released Today
(Image Credit: CER 2020)
The black trend line shows what happens to crude oil supply if no climate action is taken. The pink dotted trend line shows crude supply available if modest climate actions are taken. The pink trend line indicates that if the pipelines are built, there will be significantly more pipeline capacity than there is crude oil available for export.
Today, the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) released their annual Energy Futures Report. This report confirms what Tsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) has been saying for years: that the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX) and Keystone XL are not needed if Canada takes any action on the climate crisis.
TWN has consistently raised this issue with the CER (previously the NEB) as well as with the federal government during consultation because the economic analysis that Trans Mountain relied on was out of date and assumed oil prices of $80 or higher. Unfortunately, the CER and federal government did not accept our updated evidence, and when we brought them to court over inadequate consultation, the Federal Court of Appeal excluded an economic update from the scope of our court challenges.
TMX will violate our inherent and constitutionally protected Indigenous rights. It will further threaten already endangered species like the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the deeply sacred relationship we have with them. And it will take Canada further down the path towards climate catastrophe. Prime Minister Trudeau’s government recognized all this, but justified these harmful impacts based on the so-called economic benefits without updating the business case. With that economic justification now eroding, it appears as if Trudeau is now violating Indigenous rights for the mere speculative hope of maintaining investor confidence. It is an illusion.
Today’s report confirms what we have been saying for a long time: climate leaders don’t build pipelines. Canada’s future requires climate action and reconciliation, not more pipelines.