Want to Talk Northern Gateway Pipeline? Cancel your vacation

onAug 4, 2010 @ 10:44 PDT

A Northern BC newspaper, the Kitimat Sentinal, has an article today talking about the impact Enbridge’s major oil spill in Michigan is having on the oil company’s proposal to run a similar pipeline from the Alberta’s tar sands to the West Coast of British Columbia.

It is a good read, but a note near the end of the article caught my eye regarding an upcoming community consultation that the “Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel” has planned:

“Aug 31 the Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Panel will be at Riverlodge in Kitimat for oral comments on the Enbridge submission.

People interested in commenting must register by August 18, by fax or mail.”

A community hearing in the last days of the summer holiday pretty much guarantees a poor showing of concerned citizens, something that I would guess would be a good thing if you’re bent on seeing this pipeline go through.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.