BREAKING: Research confirms Trudeau's pipeline will lose us $12 billion
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 18:18
- Written by editor
Friends,
Earlier today, researchers at Simon Fraser University released a report that confirms something the climate movement has been saying all along: TMX makes no sense. The team from SFU’s School of Resource and Environmental Management ran a cost/benefit analysis of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and found that the project will lead to almost $12 billion in losses for Canada.1
If you haven’t already signed our Defund TMX petition, add your name today.
On top of being a climate disaster, the economics of TMX have always been shaky. Now it’s clear that Trudeau made a terrible mistake when he used our tax dollars to buy the pipeline from Texas oil giant Kinder Morgan in 2018. Since then, construction costs have doubled and global action to reduce emissions has finally started to ramp up. Those factors mean TMX is a clear financial loser and, as the study’s authors advise, the federal government would be better off cancelling the project now and redirecting funds into renewable energy projects.
In stark contrast, today President Biden announced a $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan, much of which will be directed towards accelerating the green energy transition in the United States.2 It's more sweeping and ambitious than anything Canada has done to date and it underscores just how much Trudeau’s brand of "climate leadership" depended on Donald Trump being in the White House.
The case against TMX has never been stronger and it’s clear our movement is winning the argument. A recent poll showed that, in addition to ranking job-creation and climate action as the two most important issues, a full two-thirds of Canadian voters believe oil and gas pipelines are the area least deserving federal support.3
Can you forward this email to a friend and ask them to sign the Defund TMX petition too?
It’s been just over 3 years since I was arrested resisting the construction of this pipeline. In that time, the company which first proposed this project abandoned it altogether, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned its initial approval, the project has struggled to secure insurers to back it, and Indigenous-led resistance to this pipeline has remained strong from the unceded Coast Salish territories, where I live, to Secwepemc territories in the interior of BC. It’s clear this pipeline isn’t getting built so why does Trudeau keep wasting our public money on it? Let’s speak up to defund TMX once and for all.
Onwards,
Atiya
1. CBC News: Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will lead to $11.9B in losses for Canada, study says
2. CNBC: Here’s how Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan addresses climate change
3. The Conversation: Climate action, job creation are top post-pandemic priorities for Canadians
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