B.C. environmental activist says focus on U.S. funding of anti-pipeline movement misses the point

An environmental group is filing a legal motion asking the National Energy Board to expand the scope of its review of climate-change impacts of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion as the deadline looms for interveners to file final arguments with the board. 

This comes as a B.C. researcher is raising flags that American money is funding oil and gas protests and anti-pipeline organizations in B.C. — and has been for years.

"It's to be expected that there is going to be global interest in our natural resources," said Vivian Krause, who followed the paper trail.

She says millions of U.S. dollars has funded the anti-pipeline movement.

But environmental activist Tzeporah Berman argues that Canada's pipeline decisions are an international issue and that the focus on where the money comes from detracts from climate-change concerns.

"The amount of money that has gone to environmental organizations for campaigns is a drop in the bucket compared to what the oil industry and the governments are spending," she said.

"This is a campaign that's run by Canadians and is Indigenous-led — to fearmonger that somehow it's run by American foundations is insulting to the thousands of Canadians who are standing up."

Climate-change reviews

Stand.earth, the grassroots organization launching the legal motion, is pushing for upstream and downstream environmental impacts of the project to be taken into account — particularily how the Trans Mountain pipeline would relate to the expansion of oilsands and higher emissions. 

"The prime minister can't have it both ways: he can't say he's going to protect the climate and create a plan in Canada to reduce emissions while increasing emissions from the oilsands," said Berman, the international programs co-ordinator with Stand.earth.

The board said in 2014 that it is not considering all upstream and downstream emissions and has argued that the growth of the oilsands is not based on this one pipeline project.    

Berman pointed to promises from the federal Liberal government to review the impacts of pipeline projects like Energy East and Trans Mountain.

"They created a process for Energy East to be reviewed on climate change, but they gave Trans Mountain a pass," she told Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC's The Early Edition.

"They did that because it was already in process when [the Liberals] got elected, there was already a review going on."

The NEB is now in the middle of doing another assessment of the environmental impacts of the project and has until Feb. 22 to issue its final recommendation to the government on whether the project should go ahead.

"The world has changed a lot since this pipeline was proposed," Berman said.

CBC News reached out to the NEB and Trans Mountain Corporation but neither were available for comment.