KINDER MORGAN: Your pension - building pipelines!

[Oscar]

TAKE ACTION! Stop your pension from building pipelines! Send your letter today!
[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65322 ]
If you work or have worked in Canada, you are a contributor to the Canada Pension Plan. You have a say in whether or not your pension funds are used to pay for risky pipeline projects that fuel climate change and endanger coastal waters.


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TAKE ACTION! Stop your pension from building pipelines! Send your letter today!

[ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65322 ]

Last week Reuters revealed that U.S.-based pipeline company Kinder Morgan is approaching Canadian funders to raise money to triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 barrels a day. This would also quadruple the number of supertankers to more than 400 in B.C’s Burrard Inlet each year.

One funder Kinder Morgan has approached is the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

If you work or have worked in Canada, you are a contributor to the Canada Pension Plan. You have a say in whether or not your pension funds are used to pay for risky pipeline projects that fuel climate change and endanger coastal waters.

This pipeline would be:

A risky investment. Globally, as the world transitions to a clean energy economy, investing in fossil fuel-based companies like Kinder Morgan becomes a liability. Oil giants Exxon and ConocoPhilips recently announced they are leaving a combined 4.7 billion barrels of tar sands reserves in the ground because they aren’t profitable enough to extract. Shell and Statoil are slowly divesting their tar sands assets.

A risk to water and the climate. The Trans Mountain pipeline crosses 1,300 waterways. A pipeline spill in any of them would have devastating impacts. Building and expanding pipelines also moves us away from our Paris climate commitments. Building Kinder Morgan would singlehandedly add an estimate 28 megatons of CO2 equivalent downstream emissions.

A violation of Indigenous rights. At least six West Coast Indigenous communities are suing the federal government because the Trans Mountain pipeline would threaten their livelihoods.

Even though the Trudeau government recently approved the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, many obstacles still remain, including Kinder Morgan’s need to secure investors for the $6.8 billion project.

That’s where you come in.

Take action! Tell the CPPIB you don’t want your pension fund invested in the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Send letter online at: [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65322 ]

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Kinder Morgan approaches pension funds to finance its $6.8 billion Trans Mountain pipeline

[ http://canadians.org/blog/kinder-morgan ... n-pipeline ]

February 17, 2017 - 5:34 pm

(PHOTO: Vancouver-based Council of Canadians organizer AJ Klein at the mobilization against the Trans Mountain pipeline on Burnaby Mountain, November 2014.)

Texas-based Kinder Morgan has reportedly approached the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP), and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) to help finance its $6.8 billion Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.

Reuters reports, "Kinder Morgan Inc. has begun talks with institutional investors including major Canadian pension funds and private equity firms to raise capital for the $6.8 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline project, according to people familiar with the process. Kinder Morgan has held discussions with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, three of the biggest Canadian pension funds, the people added. It was unclear whether talks with the three pension funds were still ongoing."

The article adds, "Kinder Morgan has hired Toronto Dominion Bank as an adviser to help arrange financing for the project and the bank is expected to run a so-called 'dual-track' process. Apart from a potential IPO, Kinder Morgan is also considering a sale of a 50 per cent stake in Trans Mountain by creating a joint venture. The formal process to attract joint venture partners is getting underway, the people said."

The Trudeau government approved the proposed expansion of the 1,150 kilometre Alberta-British Columbia pipeline on November 29, 2016. The expansion would create a twinned pipeline increasing the nominal capacity of the system from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.

The pipeline would carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands through the iconic Jasper National Park in Alberta, into the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, across the Vedder Fan aquifer and the municipality of Chilliwack's protected groundwater zone, then across the Fraser River and to the Westridge Marine Terminal at Burrard Inlet for export on 400 supertankers a year.

It has recently been confirmed that the pipeline has spilled six times along its 158 kilometre route through Jasper National Park since 1954, including one spill about 140 metres from the Athabasca River in 1973.

Overall, the pipeline would cross 1309 water courses in Alberta and British Columbia. It would also enable a continued expansion of the tar sands in northern Alberta and produce between 20 to 26 megatonnes of carbon pollution a year.

Two-thirds of the 120 First Nations along the pipeline route have not given their free, prior and informed consent for the pipeline.

One of those First Nations is the Coldwater Indian Band, which is situated about 90 kilometres south of Kamloops. They have filed a judicial review challenge of the Trudeau government's approval of the pipeline. Metro News has reported, "The First Nation raised its concerns about the proximity of the Trans Mountain route to its aquifer, upon which 90 per cent of the nearly 800 residents depend for drinking water."

The Council of Canadians has been opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline since August 2011 by participating in marches, protests and civil disobedience actions, supporting chapter activism, petitions and a court action, writing blogs, and organizing numerous public events and a six-community speaking tour.

Kinder Morgan says it will start construction on the pipeline this September.

Brent Patterson's blog
Political director of the council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

OTPP "not in talks" with Kinder Morgan, time now for the CPP to refuse to invest in Trans Mountain pipeline

[ http://canadians.org/blog/otpp-not-talk ... n-pipeline ]

March 2, 2017 - 8:03 am

The Council of Canadians is opposed to pension funds financing Texas-based Kinder Morgan's proposed $6.8 billion Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.

On February 17, Reuters reported, "Kinder Morgan Inc. has begun talks with institutional investors including major Canadian pension funds and private equity firms to raise capital for the $6.8 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline project, according to people familiar with the process. Kinder Morgan has held discussions with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, three of the biggest Canadian pension funds, the people added. It was unclear whether talks with the three pension funds were still ongoing."

But by February 27, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan had tweeted, "Ontario Teachers’ is not in talks to finance Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion."

Help us get the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to make a similar declaration.

Please go to our online action alert Stop your pension from building pipelines! [ https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/ ... n.id=65322 ] that says to CPPIB president Mark Machin, "As a CPP contributor, I urge the CPPIB to take a principled stance and publicly refuse to invest any money in Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline."

If Kinder Morgan can secure the needed financing, it says it will start construction on the pipeline this September.

The Trudeau government approved the proposed expansion of the 1,150 kilometre Alberta-British Columbia pipeline on November 29, 2016. The expansion would create a twinned pipeline increasing the nominal capacity of the system from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day. The pipeline would carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands through the iconic Jasper National Park in Alberta, into the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, across the Vedder Fan aquifer and the municipality of Chilliwack's protected groundwater zone, then across the Fraser River and to the Westridge Marine Terminal at Burrard Inlet for export on 400 supertankers a year.

Overall, the pipeline would cross 1309 water courses in Alberta and British Columbia. It would also enable a continued expansion of the tar sands in northern Alberta and produce between 20 to 26 megatonnes of carbon pollution a year. Two-thirds of the 120 First Nations along the pipeline route have not given their free, prior and informed consent for the pipeline.

The Council of Canadians has been opposing the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline since August 2011.

#StopKM

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]

[Oscar]

Golden chapter donates to legal challenge fund vs Kinder Morgan pipeline

[ http://canadians.org/blog/golden-chapte ... n-pipeline ]

March 4, 2017 - 9:31 am

The Council of Canadians Golden chapter is making a donation to the 'Pull Together' fund to challenge in court the 890,000 barrel per day Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline.

The Pull Together website says, "Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker project poses unacceptable risks to our oceans and waterways, our climate, economies, and communities. It must never be built. First Nations have vowed to stop it in the courts, so people, businesses, and community groups are raising funds to support them."

So far $89,703. has been raised and all funds donated go entirely to First Nations legal defence.

The website highlights, "Multiple lawsuits have been filed since the project’s approval in late 2016. The Tsleil-Waututh and Coldwater First Nations have agreed to work with Pull Together."

The Coldwater Indian Band is situated about 90 kilometres south of Kamloops. They have filed a judicial review challenge of the Trudeau government's approval of the pipeline citing their concerns about the proximity of the pipeline to their aquifer which provides drinking water to 90 per cent of the nation's 800 residents. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, whose traditional territory includes the lands and waters in the Burnaby area where Kinder Morgan would export bitumen in about 400 tankers a year, is also moving forward with a legal challenge against the pipeline.

Tsleil-Waututh Nation Chief Maureen Thomas says, "The federal government's consultation process was disappointingly flawed. We do not consent to the Kinder Morgan pipeline project in our territory. We are asking the court to overturn the federal cabinet's decision to approve this project."

The Trudeau government approved the proposed expansion of the 1,150 kilometre Alberta-British Columbia pipeline on November 29, 2016. While it has argued that 39 Indigenous communities are supportive of the pipeline, it neglects to say that there are 120 First Nations along the pipeline route meaning two-thirds of the potentially impacted independent and sovereign Indigenous nations have not given their free, prior and informed consent as required under Article 19 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

If Kinder Morgan can secure the financing needed for the $6.8 billion pipeline, it says it will start construction on the pipeline this September.

The Council of Canadians has been opposing the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline since August 2011.

In 2014-15, the Golden, Chilliwack, Victoria, Vancouver-Burnaby and Mid-Island chapters donated $6,970 to the Pull Together fund for the legal challenge against the Northern Gateway pipeline. In June 2016, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the Harper government's approval of that pipeline saying Canada had fallen short of its duty to consult with Indigenous people before approving the project.

#StopKM
Tags: chapters
[ http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]