Stop playing chicken with the pipeline
The debate over the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) has become so enormous that it now impacts people across Canada, and many living across the border. For those who haven’t heard, the original trans-mountain pipeline spans the Rocky Mountain range that divides the province of Alberta and British Columbia. It is ironic that two provinces can be so connected by mountain ranges, shared political parties, and yet so riddled with conflict over an energy project.
The line only spans two provinces, but in the last week, the pipeline debate has spanned the country like it never before. Regardless of what side of the mountains you land on, it’s likely by this point in the game that most of you have noticed that there are several inconsistencies in the debate.
It’s been over a year since the trans-mountain expansion was approved by the National Energy Board, but that’s still not enough for politicians or the environmental movement. It’s time for politicians to stop vying for political points against one another.
It’s time for environmental organizations to stop cherry picking their issues with energy projects and industries. To explain the particularities of the debate, and how inconsistent everyone’ argument has been, whether it’s for or against the pipeline, we need to take a closer look at what our politicians have said and what they are doing but we also need to be critical of our everyday life and practices as engaged citizens.
Even with social media saturated with images of oil spills, cute little animals covered in oil, videos of oil wells spilling billions of litres into the ocean, and a general consensus on both sides of the debate that we need to reduce the carbon footprint, we are still too comfortable using oil in our everyday life to be able to effectively move on to any new forms of energy. And that’s fine. We get it. Everyone likes driving their gas guzzling vehicle to the mountains to enjoy that fresh air. Everyone needs a laptop, mobile phone, and a TV manufactured from petrochemical products, and some people just need to deny climate change. When it comes to the reality of the world there is no room for hyperbolic arguments on either side of this debate. We need deep and complex analysis now.
The coastal water off the west coast is unique, it’s beautiful, natural, people come from all over the World to see it. It’s an important ecosystem that sustains and fosters all of our lives. But we must protect it consistently. Premier Horgan’s announcement that Kinder Morgan will not be built just simply does not align with his recent stance on LNG projects, or his government’s stance on the site-C hydro project, “I have been doing what I said I would do and that is to defend B.C.’s coast. We’re doing it in a lawful manner and there’s nothing to stand down from,” says Horgan. That statement shouldn’t come as a surprise. It really shouldn’t, yet it quite frankly doesn’t make any sense.
The party didn’t win the election overall, but they did win forty-one seat on the coast. And without that win, Horgan now finds himself in a different balancing act between himself, Minister of Environment George Heyman, and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver because the BC Liberals won forty-three seats. Horgan only gets his power from the Green-NDP alliance, if either Heyman or Weaver oppose Horgan, the whole NDP government comes down. Confronted with the prospect of losing power Horgan’s only option is to walk a very fine line, put up a show and defend the coastline.
The irony lingers like smog from the hydrocarbons of morning commutes past. The pipeline has been in operation since 1953, without issue delivering oil to a terminal on the Vancouver peninsula next to coastal waters.¹ On the other side of that peninsula at Point Roberts, a sensitive ecosystem located at the mouth of the Fraser River is Westshore Terminal, North America’s largest coal terminal where every year thirty-three million tonnes of coal is exported on the same route oil would take to markets in Asia, Europe and South America.² Simultaneous with the proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, Westshore is investing $275 million into expanding and improving their terminal. The coal being shipped from Westshore is used for electricity and the production of steel.
Logically, Horgan should be opposed to Westshore expanding because coal presents the same risk to the coast and contributes to a larger carbon footprint. But he can’t, he’s pinned because opposition to the pipeline has been political since the NDP’s victory.
People are looking for leadership on the issue. When the provinces can’t agree on important projects that are about more than just the provinces federal politicians should step in to guide the way, some may argue that’s their role. To Horgan’s credit, he’s asking for an abstract review on the constitutionality of legislation, what’s being informally called a reference question, from the Supreme Court of Canada. At the same time, his Minister of Environment recognized the that the jurisdiction of the pipeline is federal. Similar to his government’s approach to energy projects, his view of the constitution and the role it should and should not play is inconsistent.
Despite the important nature of the debate, we don’t really see any politicians stepping up to provide the complex analysis and discussion that we so desperately need with regards to energy projects. In fact, they are only making matters more convoluted.
Federal politics is a mess. We have seen where Trudeau is at-I mean not really given that he refuses to take any immediate responsibility or action-but where are the other parties? Jagmeet Singh in a press conference, Wednesday, April 11, 2018, said he had a long history of opposition to the project. No one really knows what the conservatives want, but they have been consistent in changing their position to suit the political sentiment of the day. For conservatives that appear to be resorting an odd argument about ethical oil and dictatorships. That’s a fair argument, but they aren’t going to stop dictators and using only Canadian oil around the World isn’t going to stop Russia or Saudi Arabia from exporting. It’s similar to another common argument used by conservatives, which is, on a very basic level, no one else is stopping emissions so why should we? No one else is going to stop using dictator oil, so why should we. And that’s just not a great argument.
Everyone is inconsistent. It’s a slapstick attempt for politicians to score political points. But if Albertans slowed down for a moment and listened with open minds instead of seeing political parties they would hear something consistent. Everybody in Alberta is shouting “yes” for the Trans Mountain Expansion and Alberta. That’s something consistent Albertans can work together on with losing their tiny majority government like Horgan.
¹ “Kinder Morgan — Transmountain.” https://www.kindermorgan.com/business/canada/transmountain.aspx
² “Westshore Terminals — Main.” http://www.westshore.com/#/main
³ “Railway Occurences 2016.” Transportation Safety Board of Canada. http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/stats/rail/2016/sser-ssro-2016.asp
