"Canadian Environment Groups Challenge Oil Pipeline Approvals"

"The groups are objecting to the approval granted Northern Gateway last month by the Joint Review Panel. The panel, which held 18 months of hearings into Northern Gateway, concluded the project posed little risk to the environment provided Enbridge complied with 209 conditions attached to the approval."

"The final decision on whether the project can go ahead rests with the cabinet of Canada's Conservative government. The groups' suit, filed in Federal Court on Friday, says the panel did not adequately consider the effects of the project on humpback whales or caribou and that its conclusions were based on insufficient evidence.

"The JRP did not have enough evidence to support its conclusion that the Northern Gateway pipeline would not have significant adverse effects on certain aspects of the environment," Karen Campbell, a lawyer for Ecojustice, which filed the suit in Federal Court on behalf of ForestEthics Advocacy, the Living Oceans Society and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, said in a statement."

Scott Haggett reports for Reuters January 20, 2014.