Energy Onslaught
Syncrude duck death trial underway
Oilsands giant Syncrude returned to court Monday morning to face charges laid in the deaths of 1,600 ducks in a northern Alberta tailings pond in April 2008.
Dozens of binders full of background material were stacked on tables and cabinets in the St. Albert, Alta., courtroom.
Prosecutors say it could take months to get through the evidence. Two months have been set aside for the trial.
Additional Excerpt:
'Tailings ponds themselves are on trial,' says environmentalist
Speaking outside the courthouse on Monday, Sierra Club Prairie director Lindsay Telfer said the case goes far beyond the ducks and the "tailings ponds themselves are on trial."
"I think that this incident specifically showed the world just how toxic the tailings ponds are," she said.... Read more »
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Toxic Tailings on Trial
ST. ALBERT--Syncrude Canada is back in court as the trial begins for the death of 1600 migrating birds, caused when they landed in Syncrude’s toxic tailings. Sierra Club Canada, who first laid charges on the matter by way of a Private Prosecution in January 2009, is in court following the opening statements.
Yesterday, the federal prosecutor laid out opening arguments that the tailings ponds themselves are unlawful according to the Migratory Birds Act. “The opening remarks solidified our belief that this case is really about the toxic tailings lakes themselves being on trial,” says Sierra Club Prairie Chapter Director Lindsay Telfer. “Under the Migratory Birds Convention Act the law is clear, the existence of the tailings ponds themselves are unlawful.”... Read more »
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Environmental Assessment Lawsuit Moves Ahead
"We are asking the courts to declare the government's actions illegal and to require them to register all projects that have gone ahead," said John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada. "This government should give Canadians the opportunity to review the environmental impacts of stimulus projects and request that impacts from the projects be addressed to protect the environment."
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Backgrounder: Mackenzie Valley Recommendations
Background Contents
2. Recommendations
3. Cumulative Effects
4. Wildlife and Protected Areas
5. What’s next?
6. Acknowledgements
Sierra Club Canada is pleased that so many of our interventions in the hearings for the Mackenzie Gas Project are reflected in the 176 recommendations of the Joint Review Panel for this $16 billion project. Most notably, the Panel has recommended that natural gas from Northern Canada not be used to fuel further tar sands development in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project (MGP) finally released its report and recommendations on December 30, 2009. The Panel report concludes that the MGP could be sustainable if all 176 of its recommendations are implemented. The Panel report states: "If the Project were permitted to proceed without full implementation of the Panel's recommendations, its contribution to sustainability would be negative."... Read more »
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Sierra Club blasts Wall over remarks
The Sierra Club of Canada blasted Premier Brad Wall's call for a "tech fund'' to invest in carbon reduction technologies, like carbon capture and storage (CCS), as a waste of time and money.
"It might have made sense 20 years ago when there was time to take a long-term approach," said John Bennett, executive director of the Ottawa-based environmental group.
"Today, we are facing the tipping point of catastrophic climate change, which will be absolutely devastating to Saskatchewan,'' Bennett said in e-mail message to the Leader-Post.
"You can't negotiate with the atmosphere."
Bennett was responding to a speech Wall made to the Energy Council of Canada last week in Regina in which he criticized cap-and-trade policies as economically harmful programs that don't reduce carbon emissions.... Read more »
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