mo4ch:>'No longer US prisoner': Canada green-lights pipeline expansion despite environmental concerns | Mo4ch News

Ottawa has OKed the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, bogged down by delays due to concerns over oil spills in coastal waters and opposition from indigenous people living in its path.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who's been trying to carve out an image of himself as a champion of environmental protection, reasoned that the pipeline would lessen the US' leverage over Canada."As we've seen over the past few years, anything can happen with our neighbors to the south. Right now, we're prisoners to the American market," Trudeau said as his government gave a go-ahead to the controversial expansion of the pipeline set to triple its capacity to almost 1 million barrels per day.Operational since 1953, the pipeline carries crude from Alberta to the west coast of British Colombia. As the Canada's oil production has increased, the pipeline's capacity has become overtaxed, since it remains the only one linking the two areas. Some 99 percent of Canada'…