Editor:
Our government, while committed to the Paris Climate Accord, appears to have decided that some bitumen will be exported.
The market waits.
The Harper government mishandled the two west coast pipeline proposals (Kinder Morgan and Enbridge).
The new federal government is also having great difficulty in convincing us that they know how to fix these publicly disliked, coastal, diluted bitumen (dilbit) pipelines schemes. The newly created ‘modernized’ NEB panels are holding local community meetings.
Hopefully these panels will listen carefully, and develop a publicly acceptable pipeline dilbit export plan.
A simple solution stares us in the face.
One pipeline system could handle the total proposed dilbit flow from Alberta to an open ocean export terminal location, somewhere north of Prince Rupert, thus adding no dilbit-laden tankers to Douglas Channel, Burrard Inlet and the international Salish Sea.
The feared threat of that inevitable dilbit spill in these waters is much reduced, allowing the environmentally-based, major industry to continue bringing in those multi-billions in business and tax revenue.
Carl Shalansky
North Vancouver