EDMONTON – According to the Alberta Enterprise Group, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has postponed his trip to Alberta’s oilsands to learn firsthand about development and the impact the Keystone XL pipeline project could have.
Kennedy and his son Conor were scheduled to tour Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan, and meet with special interest groups this weekend.
Kennedy serves as a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) – a U.S. environmental action group with 1.4 million members – and also is the President of Waterkeeper Alliance, a global water protection movement that he founded in 1999.
However, Thursday afternoon Kennedy decided to reschedule the trip.
“At a time when the people of Alberta are coping with the devastating impacts of unprecedented floods, it’s important that the urgent work of assistance and recovery move ahead without distraction. For that reason, Mr. Kennedy has decided to postpone his visit to the province until later this year. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Alberta in this difficult time and we look forward to meeting with them soon,” Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, International director of NRDC said in a media release Thursday evening.
The Alberta Enterprise Group tells Global News, Kennedy rescheduled the trip after being contacted by the group.
“Our organization has personally contacted him and advised him in the strongest terms to postpone his trip. Albertans are always very good hosts, we’ve proven that time and time again, but now is not the time to do it,” says Tim Shipton with Alberta Enterprise Group.
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“Why now for a trip like this? And, in the context of all that is happening, bad timing,” Shipton added.
“I think that if Mr. Kennedy had any common sense and good taste, he would postpone the trip. To come to Alberta in the backdrop of families still digging out from the devastation of the flooding in southern Alberta, still digging out from the devastation of the flooding in northern Alberta. Now is not the time to deliver a political message or to do political grandstanding with Alberta as the backdrop,” stressed Shipton after first hearing about the visit.
In a news release sent Thursday morning, the NRCD said Kennedy would be part of a conference call with Canadian and U.S. media Thursday afternoon to “set the stage for Mr. Kennedy’s Alberta trip and discuss the serious implications for human health and the environment of industry’s planned expansion of the tar sands.”
The NRDC said the trip will give Kennedy and his son an opportunity “to learn about the scale and pace of tar sands development and how Keystone XL will increase global greenhouse gas emissions.”
That conference call was cancelled early Thursday afternoon.
A representative for Kennedy explained the activist was worried that his trip would take attention away from the emergency recovery work being done in southern Alberta after flood waters ravaged several communities last week. Still, Kennedy’s representative said he intended to keep his commitment to the First Nations communities he was scheduled to meet with, and – at that time – said Kennedy’s trip would go on as planned.
Later Thursday, the environment minister’s office confirmed the trip had been postponed while Alberta deals with flood disaster. The minister’s press secretary says Suncor informed the minister’s office as it had a role in hosting Kennedy.
The trip was scheduled to take place a few days after U.S. President Barack linked U.S. support of Keystone XL to whether the project would significantly increase green house gas emissions.
On Tuesday, while unveiling a national plan to combat climate change, Obama said TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline should only be approved by U.S. authorities if it won’t lead to a net increase of greenhouse gas emissions.
The controversial project is in the midst of a State Department review.
Keystone XL has become a flashpoint for U.S. environmentalists, who have branded it a symbol of “dirty oil” amid a fierce public relations battle against the project.
“It’s typical for people like Robert Kennedy Jr. to come up, and use the province – as I say – as a prop, quite frankly. We know his mind is made up. We know he was arrested at the KXL protest,” says Shipton.
“There are so much more important things happening in Alberta right now than a political trip, again, for grandstanding, in our opinion.”
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