The TransCanada Corp. energy company is halting work on an oil terminal in the St. Lawrence River because of concerns for the dwindling beluga whale population. On several occasions, demonstrators warned that the site of the terminal near Cacouna, Quebec was in a beluga nursery.
TransCanada wants to build a 46-hundred-kilometer pipline to carry 1.1 million barrels of crude per day from the Alberta oilsands in western Canada to refineries in the east.
Beluga numbers plunge
The company says it will review its options after it examines a report from a federal committee on endangered wildlife. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada said last month that beluga numbers have declined from a high of 10-thousand to just one-thousand.
TransCanada’s announcement came just hours after Canada’s minister of finance warned of serious consequences for the economy if oil pipelines are blocked. The current Canadian government is a big supporter of oilsands energy projects.
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