MEDIA RELEASE: Hamilton asked if pipelines are related to climate change

For Immediate Release – February 4, 2020
OEB wondering if pipelines are connected to climate change
OEB asking the City of Hamilton and others

Could a new fracked gas pipeline affect climate change?

It’s 2020 and the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is wondering if it should consider the climate emergency when it reviews the proposed brand new 48” Enbridge fracked gas pipeline across rural Hamilton (called Enbridge 2021 Dawn Parkway Expansion, file number EB-2019-0159).

The OEB is asking the City of Hamilton (an intervenor) and others for written comments by 4:45 pm on Monday, February 10 on whether it’s important to look at the climate-wrecking greenhouse gases emitted during extraction of the gas (by fracking) and/or the emissions when the gas is burned. Comments can be submitted by email to boardsec@oeb.ca or on-line at https://www.oeb.ca/participate/applications/current-major-applications/eb-2019-0159.

In their words, the OEB is asking for opinions on whether its review should include:
“i. impacts related to the methods of upstream natural gas extraction (such as hydraulic fracturing) for natural gas that will be transported through the pipeline
ii. impacts related to the ultimate downstream consumption of the natural gas transported through the pipeline.”

Hamilton 350 Committee believes that humanity is rapidly running out of time to minimize global heating and the droughts, wildfires, extreme weather and other effects that are already wrecking communities, killing people and causing extinctions. The world’s climate scientists warned in October 2018 that we must cut greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030; and since then the warnings have become more frightening. We can’t allow the fossil fuel industry to expand its infrastructure and carry on as though the planet doesn’t matter.

A climate emergency has been declared by Hamilton, Burlington, Milton, Oakville, Toronto and even by the federal government. The emergency is largely caused by fossil fuels, so it is especially outrageous to increase the extraction or transportation of more fossil fuels with infrastructure designed to last at least 40 years.