GNL Québec: environmentalists claim victory
The GNL Quebec pipeline.
Environmental groups and citizens who have opposed GNL Quebec's Énergie Saguenay project from the start see a “major victory” in the federal government's rejection.
In his decision taken on Monday, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, specifies that “the significant adverse environmental effects that the project is likely to cause are not justifiable in the circumstances”.
< p>In the ranks of environmental defenders, this victory is a resounding blow. “We have demonstrated that this project was harmful to the climate and that it was not acceptable in Quebec,” said Coalition Fjord co-spokesperson Adrien Guibert-Barthez in a telephone interview. at Metro.
It’s a huge victory, because it’s the first liquefied gas terminal project in the world refused for political, environmental and non-economic reasons.
Adrien Guibert-Barthez, co-spokesperson of the Coalition Fjord
GNL Quebec planned to build and operate a natural gas liquefaction complex and an export terminal located in the borough of La Baie, in the city of Saguenay, Quebec. The objective was to transport natural gas from Alberta to Saguenay and export it elsewhere in the world. In July 2021, it was Quebec that decided to reject the LNG Quebec project, however the promoters persevered. They chose to undergo the federal environmental assessment process.
In a joint press release, the environmental groups who opposed this project are happy to be able to “turn the page” and finally affirm that “fossil gas is not a transitional energy”.
It is also a relief to see that the work of hundreds of volunteers has borne fruit and that citizen struggles have a clear impact on climate policies .
Adrien Guibert-Barthez, co-spokesperson for the Coalition Fjord
“The GNL Quebec project is finally dead and buried. […] The federal government made the only decision that was necessary. Now, we must accelerate once and for all the exit from fossil fuels as a whole, “said the director general of Nature Quebec, Alice-Anne Simard.
Some groups were particularly concerned about potential consequences for belugas living in the Saguenay Fjord. “The mobilization bore fruit, science and reason prevailed, belugas are now in slightly less danger,” said CPAWS Quebec's Executive Director, Alain Branchaud.
