Foes of Canadian pipeline bring the fight to Houston
Indigenous group leaders give warning to Kinder Morgan’s shareholders
Indigenous Canadians brought their fight against a Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion to Houston on Wednesday, calling on Kinder Morgan shareholders to require the company to report on the environmental and cultural impact of its projects and warning that Canada’s First Nations have the power to block the pipeline expansion. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline would carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands through British Columbia to ports on Canada’s Pacific Coast. The expansion, fiercely opposed in British Columbia, is at the center of a dispute between Canada’s federal government, which approved the project, and BC’s provincial government, which has sought to block it. Environmentalists
and some of British Columbia’s First Nations have joined the fight, much as environmentalists and Native Americans did in an unsuccessful effort to stop the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota.
Kinder Morgan, meanwhile, has shut down work on the pipeline in the hope of pressuring Canadian officials to resolve their differences.
Two leaders of British Columbia’s First Nations were in Houston for Kinder Morgan’s annual meeting in an effort to bring pressure on the company to end the project, warning shareholders that their communities held rights to some of the land along the pipeline’s route and the project would face months of determined opposition. At a news conference opened with the beating of ceremonial drum, Chief Judy Wilson of the Neskonlith Band said that the pipeline would cross waterways and affect plants, wildlife and her nation’s way of life.
“The risks of the projects have not been accurately evaluated or fully disclosed,” Wilson said. “We will not stop fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion because it threatens our culture, spirituality and our way of life, and that means fundamentally more to us than anything they can offer us.”
The pipeline is considered key to Canada’s effort to export crude to international markets and shape its trading relations with China and other Asian countries.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who approved the pipeline, has sought to balance his environmental policies with pledges to support the country’s energy industry and the economy of Alberta, which relies on oil and gas development.
Not all of British Columbia’s First Nations oppose the pipeline. Chief Ernie Crey of Cheam First Nation said his community reached a deal with Kinder Morgan that has put some of his 540 members to work doing security. He said he expects the project to create many more jobs; the nation has formed joint venture partnerships with companies to bid on the pipeline construction once it gets underway.
“My concern is the impression to outsiders — those not familiar with British Columbia — that investors like Kinder Morgan and other major corporations that may want to invest in resource development might think there is wall-to-wall opposition from native Canadians to projects like this,” Crey said. Many of the First Nations, he said, welcome the investment.
Kinder Morgan’s shareholders approved two nonbinding resolutions supported by Wilson and other indigenous leaders. One called on the company to issue annual sustainability reports on its environmental, social and governance practices. The other called on the company to publish an assessment of the risks to Kinder Morgan’s business of global efforts to slow climate change.
The company’s board of directors opposed the proposals. At the shareholder meeting, Kinder Morgan’s executive chairman, Richard Kinder, noted that the resolutions were nonbinding. But, he added, “the board will carefully consider the proposals and the information contained in the supporting statements in determining what actions to take with respect to them.”