Alberta Tar Sands and Mackenzie River Delta

(Edmonton/Calgary/Ottawa) The Sierra Club of Canada today called for a public inquiry into the extent of covert operations against citizens by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB), and issued a list of unanswered questions that an inquiry should address.  On this opening day of EUB hearings in Pincher Creek on Royal Dutch Shell’s Mount Backus well application, Sierra Club believes that confidence in the EUB and the Energy Department won’t be restored until a full public inquiry is completed.   

It seems like an obvious analogy: a group of environmentally friendly cyclists battling Alberta’s harsh elements in a long, fatiguing province-wide ride, a metaphor for the uphill fight to stop oilsands environmental damage.

But to make another comparison, just as headwinds and unseasonable weather have complicated their ride, the “To the Tar Sands” group riders have found oilsands issues to be more complex than they’d thought.

Chanting “Hear us! Hear us!” at Premier Ed Stelmach’s Fort Saskatchewan office around 10 a.m. Thursday, about 20 protesters urged the government to cancel seismic testing at Marie Lake.

During the rally, protest organizer Chris Goss said the premier promised Marie Lake oilsands development wouldn’t proceed until questions regarding potential environmental risks were answered.

Riding bicycles, about 20 members of the Sierra Youth Coalition passed through Edmonton yesterday on a three-week cross-province ride to decry Alberta's oilsands development.

The crew, comprised of members from across Canada and the U.S., stopped at the Legislature yesterday morning, speaking to politicians and bureaucrats about Alberta's oilsands and the environment.

CALGARY, Alberta, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Regulators should slap a moratorium on pipelines in Canada's North because governments and oil companies have not planned for long-term environmental impacts, a green-group representative said on Thursday.

Several environmental and social activists began submissions on Thursday to the regulatory panel probing the C$16.2 billion ($15.3 billion) Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline on the proposed development's cumulative effects.