Coal projects – such as the proposed Vista coal mine expansion – threaten the climate, human health, biodiversity, and the air, land, and water.
Thermal coal is the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, toxic to human health and disastrous for the climate. In fact, burning coal is responsible for a nearly half of carbon emissions around the world.
That’s why Ecojustice stepped up to represent clients concerned about the Vista coal mine expansion.
If built, the proposed expansion could result in the extraction of up to 15 MT of coal per year. When shipped and consumed abroad, burning this much coal could lead to 33 MT of carbon. By comparison, the largest single source of carbon in Canada is currently another coal plant in Alberta that emits 12.7 MT of carbon dioxide a year – just over one-third of Vista’s total projected emissions.
On behalf of Keepers of the Water and the West Athabasca Watershed Bioregional Society, Ecojustice wrote to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to demand he designate the Vista coal mine expansion for a federal impact assessment. Impact assessments are critical tools that help the government understand and limit harms to environment, the climate, human health, and Indigenous Peoples.
With the help of 46 other environmental, Indigenous, health, civil society, and faith organizations, and tens of thousands of Canadians, Ecojustice and its clients scored an important victory when the Minister agreed to designate the Vista expansion for an assessment.
But Coalspur would not give up without a fight. The company filed for a judicial review of the government’s decision and named our clients as a respondent. On their behalf, Ecojustice participated in the judicial review to ensure that the Minister’s decision would be upheld and Canada’s environmental assessment laws would stand.
In July 2021, a decision in another judicial review – to which Ecojustice was not a party – overturned the Minister’s order to designate the Vista mine expansion for a federal impact assessment. Coalspur was then allowed to proceed without an assessment of all the environmental harm the expansion will bring.
Following consultation with Ermineskin Cree Nation, in September 2021 the Minister redesignated the Vista coal mine expansion for a federal impact assessment.
Coalspur is now attempting to challenge the moot ruling and relitigate the Minister’s first decision in the Federal Court of Appeal.
Ecojustice and its clients are in court to ensure that the Vista coal mine expansion project undergoes a critical impact assessment by the federal government.
