CALGARY, ALBERTA ¨C On a sparsely populated island off the coast of the northwestern United States, more than a hundred environmental activists gathered last weekend to practice seaborne drills to disrupt construction on Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.¡¯s Westridge crude oil terminal.
In kayaks and sailboats they practiced forming blockades, raising banners and rescue techniques. Sunday culminated in a mass role play in which kayakers blockaded a large vessel and unfurled banners emblazoned with ¡°Stop Kinder Morgan¡± while pretend law enforcement boats circled around creating noise, waves and simulating arrests.
The three-day camp on Lopez Island in Washington state¡¯s San Juan archipelago marks the opening of a new front in the campaign to stop Kinder Morgan¡¯s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a 7.4 billion Canadian-dollar ($5.90 billion) project through British Columbia that gained Canadian government approval last year.
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