It’s being referred to as refinery, but surely it must an upgrader that Mr. Black is proposing for Kitimat.
For bitumen to be refined it has to be upgraded first and that upgrading requires the production vast amounts of hydrogen, the production of which requires vast amounts of energy.
Presumably, Mr. Black’s plan is to upgrade bitumen to a synthetic crude which can be exported to refineries elsewhere.
The promise of jobs may be tempting but all of the environemntal and First Nations concenrs around the Gateway project are still in play.
The bitumen has to get to Kitimat and tankers full of oil need to navigate the Douglas Channel and the outer islands to get the product to market.
Call me cynical, but the Clark government is between a rock and hard place with respect to the Gateway project.
They really want it, the people of B.C. really don’t and there is an election coming up.
If they can somehow sell Mr. Black’s project to the people, they can make their backers here and in Alberta happy.
Howard Brown
Enderby
