Coal lease pause not enough, say groups
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Southern Alberta conservation groups and some public officials are welcoming the UCP government’s announcement that it will be putting a pause on new coal leases in the Eastern Slopes and cancelling new offerings on 11 leases with the Oldman River headwaters, but stress this gesture does little to address the many more lease offerings the government has already approved since unilaterally rescinding the Coal Policy in June of last year.
“I think it is an important reward to the thousands of Albertans and Canadians who rejected the revocation of the Coal Policy, but it is also a very small reward, says Ian Urquhart, conservation director with the Alberta Wilderness Association.
iPolitics By iPolitics. Published on Jan 18, 2021 12:53pm (Joe Biden/Twitter)
The Lead
President-elect Joe Biden plans to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. A briefing note from Biden’s transition team included “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” on a list of executive actions scheduled for Day 1 of Biden’s presidency.
The news suggests that Canada has been unable to persuade the president-elect of the benefits of the pipeline-expansion project. Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement sent to the Canadian Press that the government “continues to support the Keystone XL project and the benefits that it will bring to both Canada and the United States.”
The Drilldown: Biden plans to cancel Keystone XL pipeline permit ipolitics.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ipolitics.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage addresses the attendees while Tom Olsen, Managing Director of the Canadian Energy Centre, looks on at a press conference at SAIT in Calgary on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019. File photo by The Canadian Press/Greg Fulmes
First Nations, ranchers, municipal officials and environmentalists hope to persuade a judge this week to force Alberta to revisit its decision to open one of the province s most important and best-loved landscapes to open-pit coal mining.
At least nine interveners will seek to join a southern Alberta rancher s request for a judicial review of the province s decision to rescind a coal-mining policy that had protected the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the headwaters that flow from them for almost 45 years.
Globe Climate: Keystone is just the beginning for the Biden team theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.