Greenpeace International Co-founder Rex Weyler among those arrests during protests of the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline in Canada. File photo by Heinz Ruckemann/UPI. |
License Photo
March 20 (UPI) -- Founding members of environmental group Greenpeace said they were arrested while protesting the expansion of Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline.
Kinder Morgan plans to expand the pipeline network to the western coast of Canada, tripling its design capacity to 890,000 barrels per day. Nearly all of the exported Canadian oil heads south to the United States and the expansion of Trans Mountain would help break a North American land lock, but lead to an increase in tanker traffic along the western Canadian shore.
Rex Weyler, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, and members of the founding family members were arrested during recent protests over the pipeline near where the organization got its start by protesting nuclear research in Alaska in the 1970s.
"Like then, we stand now for protection of the natural bounty that keeps our communities alive and prosperous," he said in an emailed statement.
The National Energy Board, a Canadian regulator, issued decisions in February that could let the Trans Mountain pipeline start work on a tunnel entrance at Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia, provided it gets permits from three different levels of government.
The city of Burnaby in 2016 filed a federal appeal against the project, saying it and its residents are concerned about the risks from the 13 planned storage tanks in the community and the increase in oil tanker traffic along the western Canadian shore.
Last week, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed executive action protecting maritime species in a move that Greenpeace said could complicate Kinder Morgan's plans.
Greenpeace is already facing a $900 million lawsuit from Energy Transfer Partners, a company planning pipeline expansions in the United States, for instigation of violence.
