Environmental Groups File Pelly Amendment Petition To Pressure Canada On Oilsands

U.S. and Canada-based environmental groups have filed a petition with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior under the Pelly Amendment, a statute that allows the U.S. President to impose trade restrictions against countries that engage in trade which diminishes the effectiveness of an international program to protect threatened or endangered species.

The petition claims that Canada has not put in place mechanisms in its oilsands regulatory regime that would prevent or mitigate harm to woodland caribou, whooping cranes and other species of migratory birds. The petition further claims that such omissions have diminished the effectiveness of international efforts to protect those species such as the Migratory Bird Convention of 1916 and the Western Hemisphere Convention of 1942.