Dear Sir:
I was dismayed by the lack of insight of our politicians regarding David Black’s news release of a possible refinery in the area. I urge you to take a look at Black’s web site Kitimatclean.ca – you will find this is not a half baked idea. You will find that David Black is a civil engineer and a very successful businessman. You will find he and his consultants have some very good reasons why the location of his refinery should be in Kitimat, why it will cost less to build in Kitimat than in Alberta, why refined oil if spilled by a super tanker will evaporate in only a few days and will not have the same devastating destruction as bitumen.
They explain how the refinery will generate $22 billion in revenues per year, hundreds of millions in taxes and 3,000 permanent jobs with an annual payroll of $300 million. We are now talking about peak oil, and here we will have a refinery that has a minimum 100-year supply of product.
Big Oil tells us that this will not work. They say they are closing refineries and there is no money in refining oil.
This could not be further from the truth.
You will find that big oil is moving away from small refineries and expanding into larger refineries like the one that is being proposed. Just look at the price of gas. All we need is the threat of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico and they move the price of gas higher. Oil companies are making record profits. I just do not believe that this cannot make money.
It seems that Canadians can always find a way to justify why something cannot be done. We have the largest known supply of oil on the planet yet we don’t have the guts to demand that we possess it. It is hard to have any faith in any of our politicians as we have no idea what is happening behind closed doors. If they are going to shove this pipeline down our throat we should get something for it. We cannot allow the precedent to be set by allowing the export of raw bitumen.
Charlie Graydon, Terrace, BC
