East Coast gas export facilities won't help Europe. They will damage our climate.
LNG is not clean or ethical.
It threatens our climate.
It increases risk of violence towards Indigenous women.
Gas extraction poses risks of violence to Indigenous women.
Mi'kmaw activist and water protector from Sipekne'katik First Nation Ducie Howe has flagged risks of increased violence and harassment for Mi’kmaw women, if the Goldboro LNG export facility is built.
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls confirmed links between resource extraction projects and spikes in violence against against Indigenous women and girls. Any project that increases risks to Indigenous women and girls is unethical. If Canada believes in reconciliation, it cannot prioritize a gas company's profits over the safety of Indigenous women and girls.
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“I am from Wolastokuk – unceded Homeland of the People of the Beautiful and Bountiful River. Our Homeland and Waterways are central to defining and maintaining our Indigenous identity. Repsol’s LNG export project threatens the safety of our land and water and our rights. If Canadian politicians value reconciliation, they will stop prioritizing a gas company’s profits above Indigenous rights. If politicians care at all about our warming climate, they must not lift hard-fought moratoriums on fracking in the Atlantic provinces, at a time when our climate is careening closer to disaster.”
— Wolastoqewi Kci-Sakom spasaqsit possesom/Chief Ron Tremblay
(Wolastoq Grand Chief morningstar burning)
Kahkakuhsuwakutom naka Malsomuwakutom
(Crow & Wolf Clan)
Wolastoq Nil naka Nil Wolastoq - I am Wolastoq and Wolastoq is me.
Gas is not clean burning or climate-safe.
The International Energy Agency's Net Zero by 2050 report said that no new gas projects can get started - if the world is to have a shot of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
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As this study by German economists and academics concludes: natural gas is a fossil fuel with significantly underestimated climate impacts. It is not a bridge technology.
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Methane leaks from gas pipelines are well-documented and awful for the climate, with more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. And, a recent study found methane is four times more sensitive to global warming than previously thought.
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Two proposed East Coast LNG export facilities – Repsol SA’s Saint John LNG project in New Brunswick and Pieridae Energy's Goldboro LNG project in Nova Scotia - would both require gas to be carried in pipelines across Canada, from Alberta to the East Coast.
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A previous version of Pieridae Energy’s Goldboro project would have added 3.7 megatonnes of carbon pollution a year, equivalent to burning over 4 billion pounds of coal a year, causing Nova Scotia to go over its carbon limit by one third. It's estimated that even Repsol's project could generate 1.2 megatonnes of pollution a year, equivalent to driving 258,563 gasoline cars for one year. This would likely make it impossible for New Brunswick to meet its climate target. This does not include the carbon emissions generated when the gas is burned - where the majority of emissions come from.
The gas industry likes to talk a big game about CCS (carbon capture and storage).
But no amount of CCS will prevent emissions when the gas is extracted, transported and used — and that is when the majority of gas emissions are generated. A Global Energy Monitor report concludes "gas industry plans for CCS at LNG export terminals often do not hold up to scrutiny, amounting to greenwashing."
CCS is wildly expensive and unproven. Shell's Quest plant - which received initial subsidies of $745 million from the Alberta government and $150 million from the federal government — emits more carbon than it captures.
Fracked gas poses huge risks for our environment.
Gas in Canada is either fracked or drilled offshore, both risk damaging the environment and our climate.
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Pieridae Energy's Goldboro project would likely carry fracked gas. Fracked gas is associated with risks to water contamination, health risks, ground contamination, air pollution and carbon emissions, and human rights violations. (For more on human rights violations, see this report.)
Offshore drilling releases toxic pollution to the air and water, impacting humans and wildlife. Marine mammals off the East Coast of Canada like the North Atlantic right whale are already endangered and would be put at even greater risk.
Exporting LNG would lead to increases in
super-tanker traffic in sensitive Atlantic waters.
Increased tanker traffic risks impacting whale habitat and other marine life.
Collisions between large ships and whales is already a major issue. Endangered North Atlantic right whales have been found dead or injured from collisions with tankers. Collisions with ships are one of the leading causes of injury and death for North Atlantic right whales.
Tanker traffic creates significant noise. Studies have shown that noise from tankers increases stress hormones for North Atlantic right whales, which can lead to habitat displacement.
Tanker traffic and coastal export facilities also disrupt local fisheries, limiting where and when fishers can work. More tanker traffic increases negative impacts on local fisheries critical to Atlantic Canadian economies.