Dear Sir:
It is hard to get excited about Enbridge’s controversial $6 billion dollar pipeline proposal in Northern British Columbia. Are a few short term jobs in the construction phase really worth the huge environmental impact for a life time?
On the other hand, the large multinational energy companies and state-owned petroleum companies such as Chinas three oil enterprises (CNOOC), (CNPC), Petro-Chine, Norways Stanoil, Koreas KOGAS, Japans JACOS, and others that have invested heavily into Canada’s oil and gas industry, need this pipeline.
Oddly, Alberta lobbied relentlessly to abandon Canadian Petro-Can’s Canadian oil investments, to do a complete turnaround, and sell their oil fields and tar sands to other countries and American oil companies. Clearly, there are too many foreign investors involved in Western Canada’s natural gas and heavy crude oil extractions. And, more foreign nations want in, because it has the potential to create many jobs back home by securing raw product for their huge refineries.
To be blunt, countries become deeply in debt, such as Canada and Untied States, when they sell complete control of their oil and gas reserves to large companies or to, incredibly enough, other countries. The small oil and natural gas royalties are nothing compared to the huge amount of money to be made in selling and processing fossil fuels.
Norway, for example, recently became the world’s richest country, and the country Russia, owns the largest oil company in the world, by simply keeping ownership of their undeveloped oil that everyone wants.
Ottawa is finally stepping in to stop the free for all, and probably the priciest law in Canada’s political history was the abolition of the Foreign Investment Review Agency 25 years ago.
Apparently, British Columbia’s biggest reward from Enbridge’s pipeline might come from media mogul Dave Black’s multi-billion dollar Northern Gateway refinery proposal on the West Coast.
Black has no oil experience, no personal money, and no investors; however nevertheless, he still wants to build a very expensive plant, to compete in a highly competitive oil refinery industry, far away from any oil industrial hub.
Black’s refinery will be competing against the most richest countries and companies in the world is unbelievable to put it politely.
As for Enbridge’s proposal obviously this pipeline is far more important to Alberta, foreign Nations, oil companies, than to vast majority of British Columbia voters.
Mark Clements,
Vancouver, BC
