— from Karen Mahon and Sven Biggs for Stand.earth —
Today [April 8] in response to widespread opposition from Indigenous leaders, environmental groups, and British Columbia government and residents, Houston, Texas-based Kinder Morgan announced the company is suspending all non-essential spending on construction of its Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project until May 31.
In the announcement, the company cited not wanting to continue to put shareholder money at risk as a key factor in the decision. The Canadian pipeline carries tar sands and refined oil products from Alberta to British Columbia’s west coast.
“Clearly, investors have lost confidence in this project and are waking up to the reality that the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline will never be built,” said Sven Biggs, Energy and Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth. “We have known for a while now that the opposition to this pipeline from Indigenous leadership, protesters, and the province of British Columbia is just too strong for it to ever to become a reality, and now even Kinder Morgan has had to admit that.”
Today’s announcement comes one day after hundreds of people — including Grand Chief Stewart Phillip (President of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs) and author Naomi Klein — rallied at the gates of Kinder Morgan’s tank farm in Burnaby, BC, in the latest in a series of protests that have seen over 200 people arrested for opposing pipeline construction.
“This project was always a bad investment, and it is getting worse every day as opposition continues to grow. The era of massive new investments in fossil fuel projects is coming to an end,” said Karen Mahon, International Campaigns Director at Stand.earth.
Stand.earth (formerly ForestEthics) challenges corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect, because our lives depend on it.
