Extracting and exporting partially refined crude from Fort McMurray, Alta., to China via Bruderheim, Alta., is a misguided economic policy.
It is not a proposal for diversifying Alberta’s economy that I can imagine enlightened premiers such as Peter Lougheed would likely endorse.
With our collective backs to the wall in regard to rising global levels of CO2, undeniable climate change and related weather patterns, and now the disastrous BP Gulf oil spill, it is about time that there is an examination by the public and all political parties in this province of alternate models of energy production. Sustainable models, that is.
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Enbridge’s proposal to build and export semi-refined Fort McMurray tar sands synthetic oil via pipeline to Kitimat, B.C., for shipment to China and elsewhere, flies in the face of the recent events in the Gulf of Mexico that show oil and water do not mix.
If the Enbridge line was to be built, it is imminent there would be a repeat of the Exxon Valdez or the horrendous BP disaster.
The impact on marine life, fishing and coastal communities off of B.C.’s west coast are powerful arguments that the Enbridge line should not proceed.
Witness also the recent Enbridge pipeline spill of an estimated four million litres of oil into a major water body in Michigan. Apparently, Calgary-based Enbridge was unable to detect this significant oil spill for several hours. This was on land where monitoring should be easy.
Who will be policing the trafficking of oil tankers off B.C.’s coast and international waters?
It is time to seriously examine the geopolitics of world oil markets and look for political solutions that would ensure oil is routed over land, avoiding water bodies wherever possible.
With Eastern Canada relying on imports from the Middle East, Venezuela and elsewhere, why haven’t Alberta, Ottawa and eastern provinces sought out rational market solutions for Alberta crude? Are we so ignorant in this province and in this nation that we are prepared to jeopardize coastal waters off of B.C. because of our inability to seek rational agreements to our domestic oil requirements because of Alberta’s intransigence and Ottawa’s short sightedness? …
Build the pipeline east for Canada’s own markets, at a much slower pace as required, over land where oil spills can be monitored, having first determined that Canadians are capturing all other forms of renewable wind, solar and geothermal energy first.…
The Enbridge export pipeline proposal is being visualized by economists and some politicians that appear to live in a bubble of ignorance or indifference to the fact that the global rise in CO2 levels needs to be reversed and of the ecological impact that further oil spills can have on our fragile oceans and the marine life that provides protein for millions worldwide and provides sustainable jobs.
It is time to broaden premier Lougheed’s vision for diversification for Alberta’s economy with truly green options available to us. That is exactly what some city councils are calling for…
Norm Dyck,
Grande Prairie, Alta.
