A local environmental group has appealed to shareholders of Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) in its fight against a $5.5 billion oil pipeline, calling the project a “dead end investment.”
In a new report titled Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines: Community Opposition and Investment Risk, ForestEthics, a non-profit environmental group, is hoping it can steer investors away from Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project by highlighting the First Nations legal risks, review process uncertainties and political risks associated with the project.
“Enbridge has underestimated the risks and opposition associated with this project,” said Nikki Skuce, a senior energy campaigner with ForestEthics. “If the project isn’t stopped by a First Nations legal case it will be stopped by a federally legislated tanker ban. If it is not stopped by the environmental review process, it will be delayed by lack of shipper agreements. If all else fails, First Nations and community resistance will rise up and take action. Enbridge is essentially shoving money down a rat hole for a project that will never go ahead.”
The proposed multi-billion dollar pipeline would ferry Alberta crude from Edmonton to a port in Kitimat where it could be shipped to foreign markets.
Calgary-based Enbridge launched a new marketing campaign for the project several months ago, zeroing in on the employment and economic benefits the project would bring to B.C.
ForestEthics has been one of the chief opponents to the project, but B.C. First Nations groups continue to fight it as well.
In June, federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff called for a ban on all oil tanker traffic along B.C.’s north coast, a move that would put into question the viability of the project (See “B.C. oil tanker ban initiative unites provincial environmentalists ” – BIV Business Today, June 22).
Last Friday at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Whistler, the Village of Queen Charlotte said delegates from municipalities around the province “resoundingly” voted in opposition to the project.
Enbridge filed an application to build and operate the project in May.