Canada’s Indigenous Bands Rise Up Against a Tar Sands Pipeline by Jim Robbins : Yale Environment 360
▻http://e360.yale.edu/feature/canadas_indigenous_bands_rise_up_against_a_tar_sands_pipeline/2937
Now that President Obama has shot down the contentious Keystone XL Pipeline — which would have transported oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast — the spotlight is turning to Energy East. Proposed by TransCanada, the same company behind Keystone XL, the Energy East Pipeline is the next most likely conduit for what is known as unconventional crude. It would run from Alberta nearly 3,000 miles east to ports in Atlantic Canada, snaking across territory claimed by some 150 First Nations groups.
The involvement of these First Nations bands in the Energy East battle may well be the trump card for pipeline opponents, which include
Canadian and U.S. environmental groups. The bands have real leverage, claiming that TransCanada must secure their permission before building pipelines on their lands — a claim the company disputes. Some bands, like the Kanastake, have vowed to block the pipeline at all costs.
