It’s obvious Kinder Morgan president Ian Anderson is a bought man. In his article, “Pipeline equals prosperity,” he mentions dollar figures, 18 times, anywhere from $7 million all the way to $11.3 billion. How many billions of dollars is Kinder Morgan willing to part with due to a major catastrophic oil spill? Nothing, it’s not their responsibility, just get it there and it’s someone else’s problem.
Everything Mr. Anderson refers to is money. Not once is there any mention of environmental sustainability, because there isn’t any. It’s a dirty oil pipeline with a limited use and it’s unnecessary and is an everlasting toxic nightmare, not to mention risking the last pristine ecosystems on the west coast of the Americas. The Gulf of Mexico spill cost $20 billion, and it will never be totally cleaned up.
Then he talks about recruiting local and First Nations for the construction phase, even though he knows the First Nations are against oil pipelines. So to try and ply them from their leaders is just another slap in the face.
So what are oil pipelines really worth? Do we all want fat bank accounts and an easy street, but live in a contaminated garbage dump, by poison soil, destroyed aquatic life, and the extinction of common sense? Or, do we choose the high road, develop energy sources that are cleaner, more efficient, and environmentally safer? Our own energy, not someone else’s toxic goo, for minimal economic benefit, and maximum environmental risk.
It’s time to put the expansion of oil pipelines to bed. I can understand that Mr. Anderson earns a good salary and protecting that is much more important to him than any oil spill. But, if we don’t stop expanding on delivering oil, then we are going to run out before we convert to alternate sources. The oil is not going to last forever. We need to convert and conserve our oil stocks for future generations, not to mention the energy produced from Asian imported oil supports manufacturing done by child and slave labor forces for cheap and unnecessary consumer goods.
Of course there’s economic benefit from building a pipeline. There’s economic benefit in any major infrastructure construction. But let’s not waste our money helping to develop someone else’s product, when we could be developing our own energy sources. It’s time to develop our newfound natural gas reserves, our energy, our money, cleaner, safer, and more abundant. Let’s build gas lines not oil lines.
Art Green,
Hope
