Green Consumer Guide: Rare whales face oil project threat: “It is a scandal that UK taxpayers' money is being earmarked for a scheme that will lead to a massive increase in climate changing gases and which could push the Western Gray Whale into extinction. The EBRD should completely review its funding policies. Public money should be spent on projects that will protect the environment - not ones that destroy it.": Friday 16 December 2005

The endangered Western Grey Whale faces a fight for survival after a controversial oil and gas pipeline project that threatens the feeding grounds of the remaining 100 individuals was granted approval by an environmental impact assessment. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) granted approval for the Sakhalin II project in the Russian Far East on Wednesday.

The project, which will be the largest oil and gas operation in the world, will involve work such as dredging and drilling that opponents claim will devastate the local ecosystem along with the rare whale species.

"The decision to approve this destructive project shows that the EBRD's environmental policies have little value in the face of pressure from oil and gas interests,” said Friends of the Earth's New Economics campaigner, Mary Taylor. “It is a scandal that UK taxpayers' money is being earmarked for a scheme that will lead to a massive increase in climate changing gases and which could push the Western Gray Whale into extinction. The EBRD should completely review its funding policies. Public money should be spent on projects that will protect the environment - not ones that destroy it."

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