British Columbia’s energy minister says a vote from chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Ottawa to uphold the oil tanker ban is more support for the provincial argument that there are better alternatives than a northern coast pipeline.
www.ctvnews.ca
Does anybody know of any other methods to move tens of thousands of barrels worth of oil across vast distances, without using pipelines or oil tankers?
I mean there is always rail, but I would assume they'd also be opposed to regular trains hauling dozens + dozens of freight cars full of oil - as I'm assuming that has far more potential risk than a pipeline...
...
And unless that tanker ban gets lifted, there isn't a point in building a pipeline because it won't have anywhere to go on the other end.
So that needs to be addressed pretty quickly here. Otherwise the whole conversation about a pipeline is moot
...
People get themselves all twisted up about Canada becoming the 51st state, or here in Alberta people talk about becoming the 51st state.
And in general (although to be honest, I would say from the convos I've had, it really seems more like 50/50 where I live & work) people are opposed to it. And fair enough.
But if the only way Alberta & potentially Sask can sell their oil to foreign markets is by building a pipeline down thru Montana & Washington state to the coast, isn't that kind of a heavy push in that direction?
British Columbia (as upside down f**ked as the provincial government is) should maybe realize that if they choose not to be part of this "Team Canada" approach to diversifying our oil markets, they are literally giving a pretty solid argument for seperation.
(In the sense that the seperatist movement can use their refusal to work with us as a solid reason to justify their points)
From the most recent BC budget released, I would've thought the province would be pretty receptive to economic opportunities. (Their projected deficit is more than $10B from 25'-26'...yikes!)
Jobs to build and maintain the pipeline (which are pretty high tech tbh, and keeps high tech jobs in areas where there might not be otherwise) and jobs to expand or maintain the export terminal, plus the royalties each would generate.
...
I don't know wtf BC exports other than lumber to south of the border...but imagine BC had a resource & the only way to export it is to ship it thru Alberta...
and Alberta slams the door on the idea right off the bat.
The US on the other hand, says "Hey, you can build a pipe to send it down here, and we'll work with you on any new or expanded pipelines to get your product to market."
...And when a movement begins in BC for them to seperate from Canada, Canada says "Nooooooooo!!! We need you so badly to help pay our bills!"
