Tag Archives: Oil and gas

Enbridge CEO Complains Chinese Growing “Frustrtated” at Pipeline’s Regulatory Delays

February 14, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this story from The Globe and Mail on Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel’s recent joint trade mission to China with the Harper Government. (Feb. 10, 2012)

Chinese oil executives are growing frustrated with regulatory delays in plans for the Northern Gateway pipeline, even as interest in Canadian oil and gas surges in the energy-hungry country, the head of Enbridge Inc. says…

…“They’re frustrated, as we are, in the length of time it takes,” Mr. Daniel said in an interview on the sidelines of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s mission to China. “They’re very anxious to diversify their supply, they’re very dependent on the Middle East for crude.

“[Canada] seems like the perfect match that should last a long time, but if you don’t move it along, people do lose interest. We don’t have forever,” he continued. “The fundamentals in the business can change and you must take advantage of opportunities if and when they present themselves.”

Mr. Daniel said they hope to have approvals completed within two years and construction in three, so that oil can begin flowing by late 2016 or early 2017, despite heavy opposition from environmental groups and first nations who fear the impact of an oil spill on some of Canada’s most untouched wilderness and coastline.

Two Thousand Gather in Prince Rupert to Speak Out Against Enbridge

February 14, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this report from the Vancouver Observer on the recent historic gathering of Frist Nations and British Columbians in Prince Rupert to protest the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. (Feb 5, 2012)

“It was an incredible day,” Prince Rupert city councillor Jen Rice said.

“We may associate negative feelings and negative emotions with this project, but the irony of it is that it actually brings people together.”

According to the CBC, Hartley Bay councillor Cameron Hill has said in the past that he is willing to die to stop the Enbridge project.

“Because I don’t know any other life,” he explained. “This is the life I have and been brought up in. This is what I want my kids to enjoy. And I want them to have the life that I have had, which I consider to be the best life ever.”

Redford Signals Alberta’s Intent to “Clear a Path” for Tar Sands Through BC

February 9, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western CanadaBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gas, Politics, rafe mairRafe Mair

I wasn’t surprised at what Alberta Premier Alison Redford recently said, namely:

The Alberta government is looking to clear a path for the oil sands through British Columbia by upping the economic benefits for its western neighbour – including the option of paying to modernize and expand West Coast ports.

Premier Redford’s government stressed Tuesday there were no formal discussions, much less a formal proposal, but some in the Alberta government acknowledge that British Columbians need to see a tangible benefit if they are to bear the risks of an oil pipeline and associated West Coast tanker traffic headed to Asia.

I was only surprised that it took so long for this vague testing of British Columbia opinion – and we must understand that this is all part of proposing bribes to BC to overcome its fast-growing aversion to the Enbridge pipeline.

An old golfing pal of mine and I were in the same meeting which was trying to get pros to come to a golf tournament our club was putting on. One of the group suggested some incentives, whereupon John Kelly said, “I stand foursquare against bribery – unless, of course, it gets the job done.”

We have just seen the beginning of a bribery process.

Premier Redford made her remarks in a speech – premiers are very careful what they say in speeches so one thing is clear: these remarks were not made just for the hell of it or off the cuff. This statement outlined vaguely what is to come.

The Harper government is in a pickle. When the PM told the Chinese that their investment in the Tar Sands (NOT the Oil Sands as the flacks want it) was safe, it didn’t seem possible that the people of BC would make a fuss about The Northern Gateway, a two way pipeline from the Tar Sands to Kitimat.

In making his commitment, Harper has painted himself into a corner, big time. How do you tell the Chinese that environmentalists, for God’s sake, have scuppered their huge commitment?

I’ll tell you what I think has happened:

Harper reminded Premier Photo-Op that she’s in a serious financial bind which Ottawa could be of assistance over, say, the HST money Victoria owes. It would help, Harper probably told his new pal Christy, if you would butt out of this and don’t, in the name of all that’s sacred, talk about tanker traffic in the Inner Passage and good things will happen for you.
Harper then told Premier Redford that Ottawa and Edmonton must prepare an incentive package for BC in order to stop those radical neo-communists from making massive protests and civil disobedience.
Harper urged Redford to put up a trial balloon such as offering money to help building quays to handle the 300 or so tankers out of Kitimat every year.
When the Prime Minister returns from China there will be meetings in Ottawa and Edmonton where we’ll put some meat on the bones of our bribe, er, incentive package for BC.

In the next year or so, we’re going to see just what British Columbians are made of as we get money thrown at us – serious money – in exchange for the right to ruin our great and very rare wilderness.

That this or something like it will happen is sure. We just don’t know when and how much.

For me and The Common Sense Canadian, there isn’t enough money in the world, much less in the country, that would compel us to sacrifice a square millimetre of our natural heritage and environment to a pipeline.

I close with this: Prime Minister Harper, if he doesn’t back off, is asking for, to use his words, “consequences” – serious consequences.

In the words of First Nations leader Gerald Amos, this so-called Northern Gateway project is “not going to happen.”

Rafe Mair’s latest book, The Home Stretch is now available online at www.kobo.com and www.amazon.com at the appallingly low $9.99

The Myth About Pipeline Jobs and the True Ownership of the Alberta Tar Sands

February 9, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasDamien Gillis

I do not have the research ability of others, but I do get information from those who have such ability, and I use it. My specialty has been using Hansard and reading bills to find out what is intended by our employees in the House of Commons. I also get letters from ministers such as Joe Oliver, Canada’s Resources Minister, which give me much ammunition.

I first heard Joe announce in the House of Commons that the Keystone XL Pipe line, all 1,000 km of it, would generate 140,000 jobs in Canada. Naturally I wrote to him asking for an explanation – in fact I wrote twice before I got a reply and in that letter he quoted a study (not a report but a study) by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, which he described as an independent think tank specializing in Canadian Energy. So thinking this would answer my questions about the jobs, I read that study. It looked good with lots of graphs and scenarios but I could find no basis or justification for any of it and it appeared to be speculation based on what the energy people wanted to hear.

For one thing, the study was constantly referring to “additional direct, indirect and induced jobs”. How in the blazes does one arrive at any real figure based on that I wondered.

Joe Oliver also claimed in his letter:

The same study also found that, if approved, the oil sands products carried over the Keystone XL would support more than 140,000 additional direct, indirect and induced jobs per year in Canada, and more than $600 billion in economic activity over the next 25 years.

Well, Mr.Oliver, having been in the trucking business for many years, I can tell you that with the unloading of the ships in which the pipes will arrive from Korea, Brazil or wherever, storing and then transporting by truck to the sites, creating the access roads and the laying of the pipes would only take two thousand people at the very most; and how can we be sure that they will be Canadians working the trucks or line machines not US workers as in Kitimat at the demolition of the smelter there? So where are the other 138,000 Canadian jobs going to be? (Besides, these pipeline construction jobs are temporary, whereas the 140,000 you’re promising are to be permanent). Your suggestion seems to be that they will be somewhere in Canada under the ‘induced jobs’ description, but where? Once the pipe is laid how many Canadian workers would be left to run the pumping stations? check for inevitable leaks etc., and standby maintainence crews? So many unanswered questions, and one more: will they be Canadian Union jobs?

No, Mr.Oliver, I am sorry but I just cannot accept this figure of yours as real, even if you try and transfer some of those 138,000 indirect or induced jobs back to the goop sands. You know Mr.Oliver, it is rather like saying that if I post a letter to you in Ottawa, I am giving work to maybe 20 postal workers across the country which come to think of it is a heck of a deal for 55 cents.

Next I wondered why this jobs thing was so important. I realized a simple truth exists that no one in the Harper Government is talking about. Energy production costs have been calculated over the years by how much oil it takes to produce 1 barrel of new oil, and way back it was 1 barrel produced 100 barrels. Over the years the number of produced barrels per barrel spent has decreased and decreased to the point that in the tar sands it takes 1 barrel of oil to produce as little as 2 barrels of goop. Obviously that is not sustainable so another method of justification must be used, and in today’s climate of unemployment and desperation in Canada this promise of hypothetical jobs is perfect.

What we are told is that if we do not approve these disasters in the making we will not have jobs and prosperity.

The future of our country is held hostage to today’s urgent need for goop to export.

A simple message of fear and twisted mythology.

As many economists have pointed out, and our PM who claims to be an economist refuses to hear, every petro-state has an inflated value to their currency. We already know that we are not doing as well in the export field because our dollar is high in comparison the US dollar, and products such as processed wood are too expensive now. This is why we export way too many raw logs as we well know here in BC. This also applies to any manufacturing we may have left and to such things as wheat. Could it be that the Wheat Board had to go because the only way we could sell our wheat was at a loss to the farmers, which could not happen with the Wheat Board?

Once one realizes that the Harper Government’s measure of worth is mythical jobs, it seems that a lot of their doings make sense to them if not to us. Even the mega-jails are based on temporary jobs for the constructors and the jailers, nothing to do with the criminals who are decreasing in number, not increasing, so a new class of criminal must be created to fill those jails. Oddly enough there seem to be fewer judges appointed so no increase in jobs there. Our Justice Minister is often heard to say in the House of Commons that protecting victims is the main reason for his mega-crime bill and a priority of his government, but a simple reading of that bill shows that the only victims who are in any way protected by this bill are those who suffer as a result of terrorism. What can they do about it? Why they can sue the terrorists! Believe me it is in the bill. More work but no extra jobs for the lawyers?

The economy that goes along with the rhetoric about “our top priority being jobs and the economy” has little value for the Canadian people – it is all to do with corporate bottom lines, and part time jobs without benefits.

As I mentioned, I rely on the research of others who have the ability and means to find things out, and in the case of the ownership of the Tar Sands I have relied on Terry Glavin, who writes in one of his articles on the subject:

The $5.5-billion Enbridge pipeline project is all about sending Alberta bitumen in huge oil tankers to China. Beijing’s own state enterprises are among the project’s major backers, and Beijing has been buying up Alberta’s oil patch at such a dizzying pace lately it’s hard to keep up. In the spring of 2010, China’s state-owned Sinopec Corp. took a $4.65-billion piece of Syncrude. Then the China Investment Corporation, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party, took possession of a $1.25-billon share of Penn West Petroleum. Last summer, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation gobbled up Opti Canada for $2.34 billion. And so on.

Then, last month, Sinopec spent $2.2-billion to take over Daylight Energy Ltd., and last week, Petro-China, with the final push of $1.9 billion, became the owner and manager of the MacKay River oil sands project. This is what Ottawa doesn’t want you noticing.

The point here is that in the past financial interests in Canadian companies has been limited to minority holdings so that control stayed in Canada. But with this Harper government, the world government by corporations is the ultimate goal, and what better way for Harper to achieve this than to sell out all the Canadian companies and resources he can to foreign corporate ownership. He was stopped for a while by the Saskatchewan government with the attempted Potash Corp takeover by BHP Biliton, but he will be back for them again, count on it.

These international oil corporations want their goop out of Canada and onto their home turf for refining and will stop at nothing to get that done. Harper’s problem seems to be that he has to find a way to get Canadians on board with these inevitably disastrous pipeline deals, because he is still subsidizing the tar sands and their wealthy foreign owners with Canadian tax payers’ money. Thus they already own this government, Canada and the Canadian people.

In spite of this foreign ownership there is another problem which I have yet to hear any member of the Harper Government mention and that is the problem of FTA and NAFTA. In those trade deals, touted as soo good for Canada, we can export as great a percentage of the production of our natural resources to the USA as we wish, but we cannot reduce that percentage amount without USA’s approval or costly compensation. We will not get that approval unless the Chinese particularly twist the US Congress’ arms to allow it. Luckily with oil we export almost all of it cheaply so we can buy back the finished product expensively, however where is there room for this huge proposed export to Asia coming from? If we double our production, even of goop, we have to double our export to the USA to maintain the same percentage.

The good news is that these corporate entities do not yet own our souls and spirits, all we have to do is find them again, and stand up for a new Canada based not on dirty, fake, oil and blood money but on respectful trading, real value and – dare I say? – prosperity for all.

Jeremy Arney is a concerned grandfather who ran for the Canadian Action Party in 2008 for Saanich Gulf Islands.

Harper, Enbridge Jet to China on Heels of Massive Prince Rupert Protest

February 7, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western CanadaBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gas, Politics, rafe mairRafe Mair

This from the CBC:

Canadian oil and business executives are well-represented in the delegation travelling to China with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with oil exports expected to be high on the government’s agenda.

A delegation assigned to Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver includes eight mining or oil and gas companies.

That list of companies includes none other than Enbridge, Inc.

The prime minister and his government are asking for a show down and my experience this past weekend in Prince Rupert indicates that the Enbridge deal, about which more in a moment, is going to spawn a First Nations and supporters v. industry and government fight compared to which all other showdowns will seem like minor incidents.

First, let’s look at the Enbridge deal from the point of view of First Nations both in their territory over which the pipeline travels and those on the coast where the consequent tanker traffic will go.

Enbridge, one of the largest pipeline companies in the world, has an utterly appalling safety record. In fact since 1998 they have had 811 “accidents”. They now tell us that with that record, mostly in easy geographical situations, they can take on the hugely difficult route to Kitimat “accident free” (or that they have a “plan” to deal adequately with spills if they occur).

The pipeline they propose, and Harper and Co. support, is about 1100km from the Alberta Tar Sands to Kitimat over and through both The Rockies, The Coast Range and over 1000 rivers and streams, including critical sources of three major salmon runs. To put this in perspective, in July of 2010 Enbridge had an “accident” which spilled over a million gallons of crude oil near the Kalamazoo River which is near Marshall in Michigan, a populated area.

Two notes from that: the cleanup continues and most observers say it will never be completed and this spill is, unlike the Rockies/Coast Range, easy to access with machinery. And another note: the spill was crude oil, which is bad enough, while the Enbridge pipeline would carry bitumen going west and condensate (the stuff they mix with bitumen) east – bitumen is far more viscous than crude oil.

The last points are very important for that there will be a spill from the Enbridge Northern Gateway line is not a risk but a mathematical certainty, and will happen in places only accessible by helicopter and the damage will be permanent no matter what the company does.

We have then 1100 km of venomous gunk of which there will be spills in wild areas inaccessible except by helicopter, which spills threaten precious wildlife and fish, which spills will be there forever. And let’s be clear on this – these spills will happen again and again.

Mr. Harper and his government, dirty hand in dirty hand with Enbridge and the Chinese giant Sinopec, are bound and determined to impose this on the people of British Columbia.

What of our fellow citizens, First Nations? They come into this awful business in two ways – those whose lands have not been ceded and those who live, as they have for centuries on the coast. At this point there are 131 nations absolutely opposed to Enbridge stepping one millimeter into BC.

Enbridge and the two governments are convinced that these First Nations can and will be bought off. And this point must be considered.

Damien Gillis and I were at the huge First Nations rally in Prince Rupert this past weekend and we can both say with confidence that this will not happen – certainly not amongst those represented there. We were both at the historic “Save the Fraser Declaration” press conference last December and saw the resolve in the faces of these leaders.

I saw the resolve when I spoke to 500 on Saturday night as I received a hearty standing ovation. I spoke with them afterwards and I can tell Mr. Harper and his resident toady, Resources Minister Joe Oliver, that they have badly and dangerously misread the situation.

The coastal nations know that they must help their eastern brethren in order to help themselves. In the words of spokesman and much admired Gerald Amos of the Haisla Nation,“It isn’t going to happen.”

What’s the matter with our governments? Don’t they understand that there is no way you can settle or compromise this issue? You can’t have half a pipeline or smaller boats!

Premier Christy Clark is a big player in this game because she can put a ban on tankers. The fact is that Gordon Campbell sent a note to Ottawa some years ago saying that his government had no issue with tanker traffic and Premier Photo-Op no doubt thinks that takes her government off the hook. Think again, lady.

Prophets of doom are often, like all messengers, blamed when their prophecies come to pass. I’ll run that risk and tell you fairly that I don’t believe that First Nations can be bribed and that the governments and Enbridge are provoking them and thousands of supporters, growing every day, to resort to violence.

People all around this province, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, are sending the governments, China and Enbridge a very solemn message: Don’t do it.

For in your words, Mr Harper, “there will be consequences.”

In-Depth Coverage Coming on Historic Prince Rupert Enbridge Protest

February 6, 2012Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Both Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis of The Common Sense Canadian were on hand in Prince Rupert this past weekend to witness and take part in a historic gathering to protest Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and associated Tar Sands supertankers on BC’s rugged coast. Mair was the evening’s key-note speaker, while Gillis discussed the role of citizen media, arts and culture in the battle against Enbridge.

Gillis also captured the day-long event on camera – as well as interviews with First Nations leaders, local citizens and politicians – and will be unveiling a series of video clips from the event over the coming weeks at TheCanadian.org.

The day began with a series of welcoming speeches at Pacific Mariners’ Park from the local Tsimshian Nation and the Gitga’at Nation of Hartley Bay – the festivities’ main organizers. From there, a crowd later estimated by the RCMP to be approaching 2,000, marched to the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre, where the remainder of the event unfolded until to the late evening. The police facilitated the march by blocking Highway 16 – the first time they have ever done so for a planned event.

Guests were welcomed by Prince Rupert Mayor Jack Mussallem and local NDP MLA Gary Coons – both reiterated their support for the First Nations opposition to the Enbridge project.

The diverse crowd heard from a number of First Nations leaders and elders – including a group representing the Gitxsan First Nation, who apologized for the actions of its rogue treaty team that signed a since-invalidated deal with Enbridge this past December.

The day was full of music and cultural highlights too, including the Hartley Bay drummers and dancers, young First Nations singer Ta’Kaiya Blaney, and a number of guest performers, including popular BC singer Bif Naked.

Watch for more articles and video highlights on the historic weekend at TheCanadian.org.

Enbridge, Harper and Consequences for Speaking Out

February 2, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, PoliticsBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gas, Politics, rafe mairRafe Mair

Did Prime Minister Harper threaten Tides Canada with “consequences” if they didn’t stop funding supporting campaigns – specifically that of ForestEthics – against the Enbridge Pipeline project?

ForestEthics says so, which is enough to have all Canadians, no matter what their stance on this issue or others, demand the Prime Minister make it clear that all Canadians, subject to the Criminal Code of Canada, have a constitutional right to say what they please on all issues, big and small – without consequences.

I have had experience with this. Back in 1992, when the Mulroney government was shoving the Charlottetown Accord at us, I was one of a very few people in the media that was opposed and said so with a passion.

One day my “mole” in the Conservative caucus – and at the same time a national media person – told me that Mulroney was going to retaliate against me by having me face a tax audit. I went on the air the following morning and reported this on the hope that this would discourage such a threat. Whether it worked or not I cannot say – I can say that no such audit was ordered.

The information I was given may not have been accurate but the sources were such that I felt very vulnerable.

(Before going on let me say that in those days I was making a lot of money from different places and had one of Canada’s best tax accountants, Russ Wilson, handling my affairs, as he still does. As with anyone making that kind of money there are always “grey” areas so that a tax audit could simply stop you cold in whatever you were doing until their audit was over. Ask any small business person what that kind of interruption can do…These days, an old man, I make very little money, have no pensions other than OAP and CPP, and we travel on our kids’ inheritance, so I’m not much of a legitimate target.)

I raise this issue because there is no end of ways a government can hassle you with “consequences” but this is a very effective one.

The “consequences” Tides Canada would pay, as I understand, would be taking away their charitable tax status, and by extension, their ability to support other environmental organizations and their own affiliate groups like ForestEthics. In the environmental field there are a number of very competent active and effective groups who have such an exemption, without which they simply couldn’t function.

The government doesn’t have to take away the exemption – all they have to do is threaten to do so, “or else”.

Let me be clear: I do not say that this will become Mr Harper’s way of shutting us all up. I have no evidence to support such an allegation other than the Tides/ForestEthics matter.

What I do say is that this sort of tactic has been used before – in the Richard Nixon days it was common.

What I also say is that the pipelines/tankers issue is shaping up to be a huge fight with the Harper Government, the oil and tanker businesses and most of the business community lined up against ordinary citizens and distinctly unwealthy environmental groups and spokespeople.

We who stand resolutely against the ruination of our environment also have the mainstream media against us. It’s a daunting task yet what I read and hear every day is support from ordinary, decent British Columbians who are undaunted by this huge array of corporate and government power.

The collision between Mr. Harper and the people of British Columbia is being made more certain by every assurance the PM gives to companies and governments that the gunk from the Tar Sands will be available to them. Every utterance from him and his Resources Minister Joe Oliver makes it clear that environmental hearings are nothing more than a nuisance and should be cast aside so we “can get on with it”.

I have left the biggest issue to the last: First Nations. The federal government has many financial arrangements with First Nations. Will there be “consequences” for the 131 Chiefs who oppose the pipeline/tanker plan from the heart; from the depths of their long heritage?

We are en route to a very serious collision and the purpose of this article is twofold: warn the public about how governments in the past have fought issues and demand from Prime Minister Harper that he state clearly and unequivocally that dissent on this or any other issue will not come “with consequences” from him and/or the federal government.

If we cannot have that assurance, look for serious consequences for people who put their environment, their treasures, the very soul of this province ahead of ruining it by people outside our province, who don’t give a fiddler’s fart for our feelings about our land and rivers and flora.

We are listening, listening very hard Mr Harper, for your clear unequivocal statement that we can oppose your plans without “consequences”.

The Race to Get Liquid Natural Gas from BC to China

January 31, 2012Energy and Resources, Fracking, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and SupertankersBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, fracking, Oil and gasCommon Sense Canadian

Read this article from the Financial Post on the race to build gas pipelines and up to six liquid natural gas (LNG) processing facilities in BC to ship gas to the Asian market. (Jan. 28, 2012)

KITIMAT, B.C. — In a climate of growing hostility toward energy industry development across North America, Timothy Wall, president of the Canadian unit of Houston-based Apache Corp., took the road less travelled to the heart of Kitimat.

He flew multiple times to the 9,000-resident town on the northern British Columbia coast to ensure support for his liquefied natural gas plans.

He unleashed a team to explain the challenges and the benefits.

He won over the local aboriginals, the Haisla Nation, by meeting with them, acknowledging their rights, making them his landlords.

“We had a big push … trying to make this a win-win for everybody,” Mr. Wall, who is originally from Houston, said in an interview.

“We told the stakeholders in the Kitimat area that there would be challenges, but that we would work through them. That with everybody pulling in the right way, we would get there.”

The two-year effort paid off with widespread community support for Apache’s plan to pipe natural gas from fields at the other end of the Rockies, build a terminal down the canal in Bish Cove to liquefy it, and transport it by tanker to Asia.

All this at a time the same community was giving another major project, the Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline, a rough ride.

“Adversaries” and “Allies” of Tar Sands Named in Harper Government Strategy Documents

January 31, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western CanadaBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, Oil and gas, PoliticsCommon Sense Canadian

Read this report from CBC.ca on federal government documents recently obtained by Greenpeace that show the Harper Government listing off “allies” and “adversaries” to the Tar Sands. (Jan. 31, 2012)

The federal government considers the media, the biodiesel industry and environmental and aboriginal groups “adversaries” in its attempt to advocate for Alberta’s oilsands, according to documents obtained under access to information legislation.

Energy companies, the National Energy Board, Environment Canada, business and industry associations, meanwhile, are listed as “allies” in a public relations plan called the “Pan-European Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy.” It is dated March 2011.

The documents were obtained by Greenpeace Canada and Climate Action Network and released to the media on Thursday. The groups say Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is working hand-in-hand with the oil industry to silence critics.

Time for Dix to Take a Stand on Pipelines and Tankers

January 27, 2012Canada, Energy and Resources, Oil&Gas, Pipelines and Supertankers, Politics, Western CanadaBC Oil Pipelines and Supertankers, Enbridge, KinderMorgan, Oil and gas, PoliticsRafe Mair

This is an open letter to NDP leader Adrian Dix and his Energy Critic, John Horgan.

It’s time, gentlemen, to pee or get off the pot.

The issues of the proposed Enbridge pipelines and tanker traffic on our coast demand your immediate statement of policy.

In order that there be no misunderstandings, here are the facts, gentlemen – not assertions or opinions but plain simple to understand facts:

A spill from both pipelines and tankers is a dead certainty.
There is no way these spills can be cleaned up.
The record of Enbridge is appalling.
First Nations, be they on the coast or along the proposed pipeline right of way are opposed – 131 of them.
Neither the federal government nor Enbridge have considered the real possibility of terrorism or vandalism.

The pipelines, one to take the bitumen to Kitimat and the other to take gas condensate back, traverse arguably the last untouched rain forest on earth. It’s certainly as rugged and remote from civilization as anywhere else.

Unlike other pipelines Enbridge has built, the route for the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline crosses the rugged, mountainous terrain of the Northern Rockies and the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Enbridge has no experience in this sort of terrain – most likely because no other government has been so stupid and uncaring as to give them or anyone else a right-of-way. The pipeline would cross some 1,000 streams and rivers, including sensitive salmon spawning habitat in the upper Fraser, Skeena, and Kitimat watersheds. Five important salmon rivers that would be impacted are the Stuart River, Morice River, Copper River, Kitimat River and Salmon River.

Surely you must be shocked to know that this pipeline is to be constructed by Enbridge which, since 1998, has had 811 “accidents”. The bottom line is, gentlemen, that this project would, beyond any doubt, have spills in terrain inaccessible except by helicopter, which spills would have a disastrous and permanent impact on our beautiful province.

There is nothing Enbridge can do after a spill – they can’t get there. Certainly no heavy equipment could be taken there and, even if it could, the damage will be permanent.

A useful step would be to look at the situation in the Kalamazoo River where Enbridge had a leak in July 2010 which has not been cleaned yet and never will be – the damage is forever. (You will note that Kalamazoo, Michigan is not deep inside rugged mountains.)

Let’s look at tankers on the coast.

Again, a spill is a mathematical certainty, certified as such by Environment Canada, scarcely full of radicals. Double hulling will help diminish the number of spills but they still are a certainty. In the past two years 4 double hulls have sunk.

Just as a luxury cruise ship can run aground in broad daylight under sunny skies and kill 29 people, a tanker will spill. And the consequences will be horrible.

Then there is the Kinder Morgan line into Vancouver. I’m not in a position to compare the old Trans -Mountain line with the proposed Enbridge line nor compare the consequences of a leak. What I can say is that there will be leaks – as there were earlier this week near Abbotsford and in Burnaby before that – and the spill will be permanent. With a tanker accident in Burrard Inlet and the Strait of Juan De Fuca, surely you can visualize the calamity that would mean to the Gulf Islands and southern coast of Vancouver Island and to the North Arm of Burrard Inlet and Vancouver Harbour itself.

Again, gentlemen, we are not talking risks but certainties.

Mr. Dix, Mr. Horgan, what more do you need for you to speak out in firm commitment from you and the NDP condemning the proposed Enbridge pipeline, the tanker traffic out of Kitimat, the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline and tanker traffic through and out of Vancouver?

I wish to speak plainly. There are many who think that the Common Sense Canadian supports the NDP.

We do not – we stand for a political commitment against the catastrophes I have described. That commitment cannot fairly be inferred from snippets of criticism, but only by you, Mr. Dix, declaring your firm opposition to these certain pipeline/tanker disasters.

If you don’t take a firm stand, what is to differentiate your position from that of Premier Clark?