Although I appreciate any politician’s expressions of intense opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plan to greatly expand its bitumen pipeline and flow from Edmonton to Metro Vancouver, it’s not a very comforting verbal reaction for those of us who are against such pipeline expansion throughout B.C., right to the front door of our pristine waters.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is “fiercely opposed” to the quintupling of tanker traffic due to pipeline development because “it means unacceptable risk of an oil spill and massive cost to our economy and our environment.”
He then promises that Vancouver will voice its opposition to the federal government-appointed National Energy Board members, as though they are likely to decide against it or the Northern Gateway pipeline project, for that matter.
Sorry, but oil sands proponent Stephen Harper and company know they’ll one way or another have the last say.
What we need is for all of the protesters – especially the strong-willed determination of the aboriginal nations which have much to lose in the matter – dead against such pipeline construction to translate their verbal steam into physical obstruction to any pipeline construction.
Frank G. Sterle, Jr.
