Canadian tribe blocks Natural Gas pipeline

California's supplies of natural gas are so fragile that what happens in the Great White North will impact out heating and electric bills in the future:

This town on a bend in the Mackenzie River has a general store and little else besides endless forests and distant blue mountains. Not an oil derrick is to be seen. But its angry Native tribe is standing in the way of what could be the biggest energy boom in North America's history.

The tribe, the Deh Cho First Nation, is blocking an 800-mile pipeline that would pass through its lands carrying natural gas from the Arctic Ocean to the booming oil-sands mines of Alberta. The tribe says the money and development brought by the pipeline could destroy its culture while leaving little lasting economic benefit.

"We have lived in these lands since time immemorial," said the Deh Cho grand chief, Herb Norwegian. "We are the rightful owners, and this pipeline should not be pushed in against our will."

The Deh Cho anti-pipeline stance is spreading through Native tribes in northwest Canada, putting at risk the development of Arctic natural gas in both Canada and Alaska as well as expansion of Canada's oil sands, which are widely considered the most promising source of foreign oil for the United States in the coming decades.

The oil sands need natural gas to help steam-heat oil out of the sands. With natural gas reserves and production shrinking elsewhere in Alberta and North America, a new supply from the Mackenzie River is needed to fill the gap and keep the oil sands pumping ever-increasing amounts of petroleum south to the United States

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Should serve as a reminder not to put all our energy eggs in one natural-gas basket.