Energy East is North America’s largest proposed tar sands pipeline, and Environmental Defence is here to set the record straight about the risks it poses.
Oil companies like TransCanada spend millions of dollars on ads to greenwash their projects. But no amount of slick advertising can hide the truth about the epic risks of the Energy East pipeline proposal.
Oil companies like TransCanada spend millions of dollars on ads to greenwash their projects. But no amount of slick advertising can hide the truth about the epic risks of the Energy East pipeline proposal.
If approved, Energy East would be even bigger than Keystone XL. This mammoth pipeline would put over 125 communities, including 52 First Nations and Métis communities, at direct risk of an oil spill. And, it would put the water and properties of millions of Canadians at risk.
In the coming months, we expect TransCanada will be working to convince Canadians that this risky project is in Canada’s best interest. So we’ve put together this handy poster to show how Energy East is all risk, with few rewards for Canadians.
While the numbers in the poster speak for themselves, we continue to hear misinformation repeated by the oil industry in a desperate attempt to mislead Canadians about Energy East. Today, we’re taking a little time to set the record straight about TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline plan. So keep on reading because below the infographic are some critical facts about Energy East.
Energy East won’t supply much oil to Canadians
Energy East is all about export. While TransCanada has implied that this proposal is somehow about supplying Canadians with western oil, the facts say otherwise. We crunched the numbers, and as our report shows, as much as 90 per cent of the oil shipped by Energy East would likely be exported unrefined via tanker.
Energy East won’t slow or stop the amount of oil shipped by rail across Canada
The oil industry has been very clear about its plans to increase shipments of oil by rail, as well as by pipeline. For the industry, it’s not an either or scenario. In order for the oil industry to reach its goal of tripling tar sands production by 2030, while exploiting a major boom in fracked shale-oil in the U.S., the oil industry acknowledges it needs every pipeline and oil train it can get its hands on.
Tar sands pipelines (and the expansion of the tar sands they enable) are not inevitable
Energy East is just the latest (and largest) in a long line of proposed mega-pipeline projects intended to expand tar sands oil production. Each gigantic pipeline project, like Keystone XL, has faced large and growing opposition. We’ve already seen the oil industry walking away from new tar sands expansion projects like Total’s Joslyn North because the economics not longer make sense for these projects.
If Energy East is not built, the reckless expansion of the tar sand will slow, leaving dirty oil safely in the ground instead of putting millions of Canadians at risk of oil spills.
Environmental Defence is Canada’s most effective environmental action organization, working since 1984 to protect Canadians’ environment and human health.
