The Federal Government Approving Enbridge Will Have Little Effect
We are expected to receive the decision of the Harper government on the Enbridge pipeline in the next few days and that decision is expected to give the go ahead to the Northern Gateway twin pipeline.
That announcement by the Federal government is a long way from bringing the project to fruition. It is only the start what will become a long drawn out process .
Enbridge can take comfort in knowing that they have spent millions of dollars on advertising that for all intents and purpose was wasted. Instead of telling the people of BC what they wanted to hear, (answers to their questions) we were subjected to a constant barrage of ads in which all we received was a presentation featuring , nice water, air, and coastal scenes.
Nowhere did the company address questions such as what is the benefit that we will receive from the project? We already know that the price of crude will increase by about $ 8.00 dollars a barrel if the project goes ahead , because we no longer will need to rely on the US market. But how can you say adding a further six cents a litre to the price of what we pay at the pumps will help the average citizen , and if so how? We have never heard exactly what affect that increase will have on the average driver, surely the federal government and Enbridge know.
What will the net benefit be to the average resident of BC from the pipeline, never mind what it will cost to install the pipe, once its finished, just how many people exactly will be employed., how many in the province of BC.?
What is the risk to the people of this province when it comes to an oil spill from a ship with a registry in a foreign country? Do we the citizens pay for the clean up if its exceeds 1 billion dollars? We do know that an estimated cost for such a spill can run as high as 7 billion.
The residents of Kitimat voted against the project because they fear the unknown. Just because house prices have increased in that community is not enough reason for them to take the stand they did. At some point in your life money isn't everything and they showed that at the ballot box.
So the Federal government may be ready to announce the project but make no mistake , that does not mean that the shovels will be in the ground. The First Nations in the majority of BC are dug in. They don't want to see the project proceed , and they along with the majority of the people in the province, did not buy into the slick advertising campaigns , if anything it gave them further resolve to ensure the project does not go ahead.
The fact that not one single company extracting crude from the Alberta tar sands is Canadian should be of concern to the rest of Canada. If there are profits to be made, they are flowing to a foreign country including China who through Enbridge have been trying to make their pitch heard. The increase in foreign jobs in the patch should give rise to concern, quite apart from the fact that we have sold out the resources for a mere pittance without guaranteeing a return for Canadians.
The road towards the completion of the Enbridge pipeline is a slow and dusty road and they will soon discover it comes with no end.
I'm Meisner and that's one man's opinion.
Comments
Note to editor: The headline should read, ” … Effect.”
Ben’s article seems to to assume the decision is “Pipeline or No Pipeline” It’s actually “Pipeline or Rail Tanker”.
Make no mistake, bitumen is coming to a port near you out west. It’s a matter of deciding what the delivery mechanism will be.
I’m far more afraid of poorly built pop can tankers in difficult waters, than I am of a pipeline.
Thank you for spell check.
Exactly Pylot. The oil is gong to move, it’s just a question of how. Pipelines are far safer than rail.
This week I had a friend visiting from AB and he says there is no doubt the pipeline will go thru, won’t matter what the First Nations people or anyone else in BC wants.
I just think if there is already a pipeline to one port. Stick with that port, seems crazy to endanger more areas. I don’t know why they want to endanger the whole coast line.
Popcan tankers? You haven’t been paying attention and just adding to the misinformation.
We do have a pipeline from Alberta, to Vancouver, and they are in the process of increasing the capacity of this line.
Seems to me when it was built there was little or no public concern.
Seems we have no problem with flooding thousands of hectares of farmland for Site C, for power that we don’t need. This land can never be reclaimed and is basically lost forever. So we scream like Banshee’s about a possible oil spill, but don’t give a s..t about flooding people farms, and livelihoods in the Peace River.
Seems the flavor of the day is the pipeline.
There was an interesting statement made in the local press, that Harper has been on Obama’s case for years to ok the Keystone Pipeline, so he would look pretty foolish, not okaying Enbridge.
Canadians for all intents and purposes have lost their Country to special interest groups, and mega corporations.
Why would our price go up? The US being our major buyer dictates what they will pay which is less than the world price. More options for our product the US will have to pay up.
Now we have a company, reported by CBC, that wants to end the controversy by building a refinery on the coast, to refine the bitumen before it leaves on tankers. Well, that still leaves a bitumen pipeline through B.C. It would be better to build it in Alberta.
That being said, we still have the problem with Enbridge. Sorry but they don’t deserve any trust of confidence in anything they say. They have really earned that distrust by their past performance.
Kalamazoo fiasco is why Enbridge should not build the pipeline. They are still cleaning it up. If a similar spill happened in the Stuart river PG would be a ghost town.
Some of the facts that came out of the court case for the Kalamazoo spill.
Enbridge knew the pipe needed maintenance for 5 years and did nothing.
When there was an indication of a problem the operators didn’t believe there was a problem.
They continued to pump oil even though their instruments said not to.
Former clean up worker exposes that Enbridge wasn’t cleaning up the oil but covering it up with mats and planting grass.
No one lost their job for that spill!
There will be road blocks if this is approved.
The price would go up seamut because Canada isn’t getting world price now from the US.
An additional factor leading to my opposition to this project is the fact that Enbridge has no plan to handle dilbit spills. NONE. They say that they will formulate one when when they build the pipeline. If they don’t have a plan, we have no basis for evaluating it. The lack of a plan also shows that they don’t take spills seriously.
Christi Clark will role over for the pipeline despite what she says for retail politics. Her husband is the principle behind the Northwest refinery plans.
I think the whole plan will never make it though the court challenges on treaty rights. The confrontational process will poison the LNG we’ll for BC in the process.
“Popcan tankers? You haven’t been paying attention and just adding to the misinformation.”
I call them pop can tankers because that’s an accurate visual if/when they run aground in the waters they want to traverse. They’ll get torn open like a shot gun beer can. You can say double hulled, triple hulled whatever you like.
Do you trust Chinese Q/A on the construction of these tankers? I sure as heck don’t.
Tankers, navigation upgraded in the area. Two tugs for escort, one tethered. Double hull makes a big difference. Freighter’s have been plying those waters for decades and I can’t find an incident.
Ships are built to a standard and inspected. Yep Chinese ships are sinking every day.
The price would go up seamut because Canada isn’t getting world price now from the US.
So how does our price go up when we get world price from the US? We already pay world price for the refined product we get back from the US. Do you mean they will jack that price up.
With the Kalamazoo incident and all eyes on Gateway it will most likely be the safest pipe in the world
Hey I am neutral I don’t really care if its built or not I just comment on the emotional ignorance and misinformation.
If you look at green group funding a lot can be traced back to the Saudis not wanting competition.
“With the Kalamazoo incident and all eyes on Gateway it will most likely be the safest pipe in the world”
With morons at the controls all the safety measures in the world won’t help.
US would have to pay world price for oil from Canada meaning their costs to refine would go up. What do you think would happen?
Posted by: Eagleone on June 11 2014 10:22 AM
Christi Clark will role over for the pipeline despite what she says for retail politics. Her husband is the principle behind the Northwest refinery plans.
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Now that’s funny!
Only an idiot would trust or believe those fairy tale adds. For once, I completely agree with Mrs. Meisner. And what goes for Alberta does not necessarily mean it will go here. and I believe its Ms. Clark’s X-husband. She will however put up a token resistance. She was falling over herself until she realized there was some resistance.
The FN are grandstanding to ensure that their “stock” stays high. Once the royalty deals are reached it will be full steam ahead. As for the “huge opposition” in this province? Most of the numbers are in the lower mainland and when push comes to shove its easy to say “Im against it” but they wont actually do anything about it beyond that. At the end of the day this line will go through with hardly a whimper and blog life basements will quieten down everywhere.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/#!/content/1.2672204
Here you go! Email your MP that you don’t want the Pipeline!
“This week I had a friend visiting from AB and he says there is no doubt the pipeline will go thru” .. well, if someone from alberta says it, it must be so. What would you expect from the wastelander?
“At the end of the day this line will go through with hardly a whimper” .. guess you haven’t been paying attention much have you? You really think that first nations are going to jeopardize 1000s of years of tradition over a few trinkets? This isn’t 1867 anymore.
“You really think that first nations are going to jeopardize 1000s of years of tradition over a few trinkets?”
Yup – just like power lines, siesmic lines, logging blocks, mines and 100’s of other pipelines that have gone through since “1867” :)
Lots of emotion but very short on reason facts or truth.
@Seamutt: People in BC and especially this region don’t know a whole lot about pipelines other than what the CBC spoon feeds them.
And what YouTube shows us JB!
Wonder what everyone thinks of the pipeline through Jasper and the headwaters of the Fraser.
Is it dilbit?
Was it built and maintained by Enbridge?
NoWay: “And what YouTube shows us JB!”
Please tell me you’re kidding.
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