Enbridge Loses Another Round
In the end it was the people of the community of Kitimat who stepped forward to say that they did not want a terminal and pipeline in their community. The vote was 58.4% against, while 41.6 % voted in favour in the non binding referendum on the weekend. Despite it being "non binding" Kitimat Council has said it will be guided by the vote result.
Northern Gateway (Enbridge) had conducted an aggressive campaign in the province in an attempt to sell the people of Kitimat on the idea of the two pipelines along with super tankers and the money it would bring the community. They have been looking for some sort of a win, which has not materialized other than the Joint Review Panel's approval of the project as long as the 209 conditions are met.
There were no stops in the campaign which was conducted from Vancouver, the Island or any area of the province that might reach a few residents who they hoped might change their vote.
Enbridge has proposed to build the twin pipeline at a cost of 6.5 billion dollars. It would employ 3,000 workers while building the project and, according to Enbridge, would employ 560 full time people thereafter. The number that would be employed in BC on the 1,177 kilometer pipeline is smaller.
According to Enbridge, the line, and facilities would pump 1 billion in revenue into the provincial coffers over 30 years.
On the other hand, critics say that 1 billion means 34 million a year for BC, while one spill could cost between 2.4 and 9.5 billion dollars. Those critics argue that with 220 oil tankers using the Douglas Channel every year, (three tankers a week) ,it is not "if", but "when", a spill will occur. The pipeline will pump 550,000 barrels of crude a day.
So where has that left Enbridge? Well still waiting for a win.
They have offered 10% of the line to the First Nations but with few exceptions do not have anywhere near the support they need.
When the final decision comes from Ottawa, if it grants a go ahead, this latest test in the form of Kitimat's referendum will only grow the strength of the opposition.
I'm Meisner and that's one man's opinion.
Comments
Time for Joe Oliver to come out to BC and tell us the opposition to Enbridge is all the fault of Ecoterrorists, again!
does this mean 58.4% of people in Kitimat are eco-terrorists? lol
“According to Enbridge, the line, and facilities would pump 1 billion in revenue into the provincial coffers over 30 years.”
I saw a similar statement on the CBC website. Doing a quick calculation I assumed that someone had made a mistake because that would be only about 30 million per year, a ridiculously pitiful amount for the enormous risk the environment of the province would be exposed to.
At a volume of over 550,000 barrels pumped per day the yearly total would be about 200 million barrels, or about 15 cents per barrel for the province.
People seem to forget that the 20 inch diameter condensate chemical return pipeline also poses additional risks, because if that one ruptures – watch out!
Congratulations to the city council of Kitimat for holding a referendum in spite of all the opposition. Certainly something the PG city council could learn from.
Totally amazing the Libs provincially and the Feds both pushing for export of natural gas and oil.
The change of state of natural gas from vapour to liquid will consume gobs of electrical power no doubt generated by burning natural gas. The result is a massive amount of green house gas entering the atmosphere.
So here we have the Libs on one hand adding 7 cents per liter of gasoline as a carbon tax but conveniently forgetting about the green house gases to be generated by LNG, the Libs pet project. Just a bit hypocritical.
To be perfectly honest, the numbers as they pertain to BC are not even worth considering. I say this from a financial analysis point of view.
The Province of BC has annual revenues of roughly $44 billion dollars. $30 million a year is 0.068 of 1%. That folks, is immaterial by any conventional measure.
Let’s also assume that half of the jobs for building the pipeline will be for folks in BC. Say they make $100K per year and pay $10K in provincial income taxes. That works out to roughly $15 million a year to provincial coffers or 0.034 of 1%. The income taxes from the long term jobs would be even less.
Unless the province can figure out some other way to get revenue from this project, from a financial point of view it’s an absolute dud for BC.
“The pipeline will pump 550,000 barrels of crude a day.”
Tarsands bitumen is not regular crude.
They are still cleaning up the Kalamazoo with a total to date of over 1 billion dollars. All the safety measures in the world will not prevent what happened at Kalamazoo. Enbridge pumped bitumen for 17 hours after the alarm bells rang. Ignoring or not believing the signal. Enbridge knew for 5 years that the pipeline needed maintenance and did nothing.
Go away Enbridge!
The thing about LNG, at least to my understanding, is we’ll be able to get the Chinese to burn natural gas vs coal so it’s an overall win for the environment. What will likely happen though, is with yet another source of energy, China will ramp up production and the problem will become worse. Never understood why we’re in such a hurry to sell every bit of energy under the ground. Are we planning on having anyone live here after say the year 2100. Actually, from a first nations point of view, they should be solidly behind this. Sooner we get all the fossil fuels burned, sooner we go back to the pre-industrial age lifestyle they enjoyed before we ever showed up.
“Never understood why we’re in such a hurry to sell every bit of energy under the ground”
Because we have markets to support!
Oh, you mean “why” as in “what’s the long term benefit”? Yeah, I don’t get it either.
“According to Enbridge, the line, and facilities would pump 1 billion in revenue into the provincial coffers over 30 years”
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Thats peanuts. The BC liberals have put us in hock 50 times that amount in the past 12 years.
Of course it is bitumen, not crude. Small common mistake. The clean up of a bitumen spill is much more difficult than a spill of crude. The condensate return pipeline does not contain just hot water either. It is a solvent, apparently. What kind of a problem would a solvent spill into a creek. lake or river or into the groundwater represent?
People! Remember “Peak Oil”? All ya got to do is wait. And all this will go away. Would anyone lie to you?
According to Enbridge, the line, and facilities would pump 1 billion in revenue into the provincial coffers over 30 years
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Norway has am partnership with the oil produced in the north sea and they have 850 billion in their heritage fund.
Cheers
Northern Gateway B.C.-Wide Vote Should Be Next: Group
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/14/northern-gateway-vote_n_5144550.html
“Norway has am partnership with the oil produced in the north sea and they have 850 billion in their heritage fund”
The fund is close to a trillion by now! Can somebody please pick up the phone and ask them for advice?
Naw, of course not!
I wonder if it is time for Enbridge to go to plan B, go east with the product. BC is showing signs of being happy with being a have not province. With the forest industry all but finished maybe the tree huggers can provide a good living.
On another thought, I hope all those opposed to the development would show their colors and refuse to apply for the jobs should the federal government chose to push the line west?
Province has to get more of a return. What kind of fees does the province get from the existing pipelines? Maybe those fees should be ramped up?
Resident you have to get off the money sucking greenhouse gas bandwagon. How come the earth did not burn up when co2 was over ten times higher. You’ve been sucked in by the professional grant seekers at the universities plus others.
Remember the province can not stop this project. If big Ottawa says its a go hell or high water will not stop them.
Cheers
So people complain about but okay with foreign funded NGO’S scewing facts.
Vote almost split I would say not quite a loss more surprising for the support.
Natives proposing to build a pipeline. He he now what will big green do?
Regional non-binding votes and plebiscites are nice, but the pipeline is under Federal jurisdiction.
@PrinceGeorge …solvent leaks into creeks and lakes or rivers and groundwater…? I can’t think of a better reason to get that stuff out of the ground. The sooner the better. And make a buck doing it.
BC threatened to pull out of Canada during the Columbia river negotiations . The Feds listened and BC got a better deal.
BC doesn’t have that money now and we are doing fine Randy1955. We are far from have not!
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