Editor: Re: Pipeline Support, (The Times, Dec. 18.)
Well. This is what happens when people believe the mushy ads on TV, put there by the oil companies.
The oil and pipeline companies are spending millions to try to convince the people of British Columbia they can install a pipeline through the most beautiful part of the province without scarring the land for life.
Even with care, this is impossible.
These new pipelines will not carry crude oil. They will carry a mixture of thick tar sands oil and a chemical solvent to thin it down so it can be pumped. This concoction is called Dilbit (diluted bitumen). As we have seen in recent U.S. spills, Dilbit is impossible to completely clean up. Unlike oil, it sinks to the bottom of creeks, rivers and oceans, where it is out of reach for clean-up.
In a fast-flowing river, the sticky mess will ball up and travel for miles. Think what will happen in the ocean.
The fumes from solvent evaporation kill foliage and sicken people and wildlife. And one more thing. After the solvent is removed from the oil in Asia, the solvent is shipped back to B.C. in tankers and pumped back to Alberta to be used again. This stuff is a poison.
Is there a financial benefit to the people of B.C.? The construction employment is short-term. A finished pipeline is run by a handful of people.
At the loading terminals, a few long-term jobs will be created but not enough to outweigh the cost of a spill.
The paltry tax collected from this industry disappears behind the subsidies. This is the dirtiest and most expensive oil to produce in the world.
The world price for oil is falling fast because the Arabs are putting us out of the oil business before we even really get started.
But even if the pipeline is successful, it will cost the people of B.C. a fortune in the end.
When it all falls apart we will be left to clean up the mess. This is a financial millstone around the neck of the B.C. people.
Please don’t fall for the pretty pictures and nice down-home people you see on TV.
This is a commercial trying to get you to buy.
John Winter,
Langley
