Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Federal Government facing legal challenge over Petronas project approval

The Federal approval of the
Pacific NorthWest LNG project
may be heading to court
The latest twist for the Pacific NorthWest LNG project will see the recent Federal approval for the project become the subject of a legal challenge, as First Nations and environmental groups combine forces to put the decision to a legal test.

 The lawsuit which is expected to be filed in a Vancouver court on Thursday, will seek to have the permit for the Lelu Island LNG Terminal project overturned.

In a story being reported by Global News, SkeenaWild Executive Director Greg Knox outlined that their group believes that there are "serious flaws in the environment assessment process" and the that Federal Government has failed to review the impact the impact on the climate of the project.
SkeenaWild is one of the groups
that are reported to be part of the
pending lawsuit

The Gitanyow and Gitwilgoots communities have also joined in on the legal challenge, telling Reuters that Canada has failed to meaningfully engage with the groups before granting the approval.

According to a number of reports the Malaysian energy company Petronas, the majority stake holder in the project will also be named in the Thursday filing with the court.

Those filing the lawsuit are noting the success of recent efforts against the Enbridge pipeline project which  resulted in the Federal Court of Appeal overturning the previous approval of that project, finding that the government had failed in its duty to consult with aboriginal groups.

Some items of note on the approach to the court can be found below:

Aboriginal, environmental groups to launch lawsuit against Ottawa over Pacific NorthWest LNG project
Aboriginal, environmental groups to sue Canada over Petronas LNG project

The pending lawsuit challenge comes as Petronas and its stakeholders continue to review their plans for the 27 billion dollar investment in British Columbia, the energy company has not outlined any form of a timeline as to how long that review process will take.

For more items related to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project see our archive page here.

No comments:

Post a Comment