Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion - Necessary for the Environment & the Economy

As a person concerned with the environment, a lifelong resident of British Columbia and a lover of the outdoors – I want to care for my province. As a person empathetic to first nation issues, I want to work toward a resolution of the challenges facing them – many of which funding is the cure. As a person that understands the value of enterprise generally, I want to create an operational environment that is predictable and recognises the realities of the world around us. As a Canadian, I am angered, by the fact, that people can malign one of our industries with impunity.

CLICK HERE FOR MY PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

What matters, are the concerns British Columbian’s regarding the Kinder Morgan Pipeline as opposed to non-Canadian actors with an axe to grind. There are two primary concerns British Columbian’s have – firstly, the safety and care of our coast and secondly, many believe that by stopping the pipeline they will stop the Oilsands from expanding and by extension mitigate global warming. Our own government officials, professionals in their own right, have stated that it believes the risk to the coastline is acceptable. As for mitigating climate change, the truth is, whether the Oilsands operates or not, the consumption of fossil fuels will continue unabated; I can demonstrate this clearly, and any rational mind can see it in a second if they take the time to look.

Click Here to Read

PIPELINE OBSTRUCTION EQUALS OILSANDS MORATORIUM
GET REAL ON CLIMATE POLICY & NO IMPACT FOSSIL FUEL USE

Jeffrey Sachs makes this statement in a recent Globe and Mail piece -

“… the truth is that Alberta oil sands have absolutely no place in a climate-safe world. Investing in them is almost surely to be investing in a future bankruptcy.” JEFFREY D. SACHS CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-sustainable-way-forward-for-canadas-energy-sector/

If I were a company or a company organization or a government involved in the Canadian Oilsands, I think I would be pursuing this comment through the courts. Firstly, Mr. Sachs should know that whether the Oilsands were to continue or not, there will be no affect on world fossil fuel consumption – NONE – so by extension, their continued operation would have no effect on “climate safety”.  Mr. Sachs stopped being an academic with this statement and took up the mantle of the purveyor of BS – damaging BS. The companies that have invested in the Oilsands, were at the outset, innovative pioneers that entered into the endeavour at considerable risk to themselves. Yes, at the start the Oilsands were a speculative space, now, thanks to the men AND WOMEN, employed there, who’ve developed cutting edge technologies – both the environmental and economic picture is getting close to par with conventional sources.

Mr. Sachs touts renewables as the solution, they are to a degree, however, we are nowhere near at the point of at par fungibility between fossil fuels and “renewables”. He also fails to acknowledge methods related to the carbon-neutral use of fossil fuels.  

   

There are many dangers with distorting the public’s perception of the challenges related to climate change, most importantly, however, is that we get a policy that fails to even address the issue of climate change and leaves other considerations like economy damaged.   The widespread use of Carbon Taxes in Canada is an example of a policy choice that will never change usage patterns of fossil fuels, is regressive and hurts marginal energy-dependent industries like agriculture. There are better options for climate policy that protect our present economy and provide capital for the new energy economy.

Click Here to Read

COP 21 REALITY CHECK

CARBON TAX V CAP & TRADE

Canada is a responsible producer of fossil fuels with an industry that produces a good deal of social surplus. It is offensive in the extreme that entities exterior to Canada can gain such influence over our policy choices. The only reason Mr. Sachs comments are so damaging, for example, is that we allow environment input into our industry and someone may actually believe is propaganda. In Saudi Arabia a country that provides 13% of the oil imported to Canada or in Russian Federation a country that provides 12% of the oil imported to Canada – there is little or no place for input from the environmental movement or for sniping “intellectuals” peddling their own agendas. Most importantly, if Canada’s industry is subdued, like Mr. Sachs and many like him are seeking to do, then producers with no progressive social imperatives will prosper. Worse, however, is that Canada’s ability to help move the world to a responsible place in respect to carbon emissions will be weakened.

Click Here to Read

CANADIAN OIL V WORLD OIL   

PLEASE ALSO SEE INFOGRAPHIC BELOW  

The first nations people deserve a better life, a life at par with the rest of Canadians. The environment movement perpetually highjacks the empathy any caring person has for their needs and misdirects it, leaving first nation people wanting and no closer to the solution. The first nation’s people would be better to divorce themselves of the environmentalist agenda; environmental protection is critical, it is just that activists have been ruthless in pursuit of their agenda at the expense of furthering the socio-economic interests of the first nations people.

Click Here to Read

Tsilhqotin Nation v British Columbia - Review and Comment

Stopping the Kinder Morgan Pipeline achieves nothing except harm for all the reasons stated above. As important, is the fact that rail transport will be forced to fill the gap to get our oil to market, a much less secure option than pipeline transport. So the oil will get to the coast and the limited risk that tanker travel represents will be the same, negating any effect whatsoever on coastal safety. The fact is, all the opposition to the pipeline, even if successful only serves to exacerbate the things British Columbians are concerned about. The entire foray on the part of the BC Government and environment activists is and was pure folly.

Some more thinking on the subject:

THE CARBON TAX MYTH

MY PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

Environment Reconsidered - A Positive Strategy

Canadian Oil Has a Social Conscience

Canadian oil has attached to it all the values of a secular democracy; equity regardless of sex, colour or creed, due process, exemplary world citizen etc. … We have environmental review processes that are overtaxing. What other significant oil producing supplier offers that to the World. The Saudis – NO – they have financed discord throughout the Arab world, they are the birthplace of religious extremism AND in Saudi Arabia women are refused access to driving a car, let alone fair access to employment opportunities. Perhaps Venezuela – NO – they dump crude oil on roads to keep the dust down, crude oil then runs into the ditches and waterways AND there is no indication that oil wealth is building a creditable social platform. Perhaps Nigeria – NO – they, flare off natural gas like we did in the 1950s, dump oil in rivers, use child labour, syphon off state oil revenues to a Swiss bank account AND make no effort at the equitable treatment of women. Russia? Iran? You get the point, the oil will get purchased and used, whoever sells oil gains material strength, think about which country you want to have the influence that comes with material strength – then think strategically.

What we humans want, we get, supply does wane, prices do go up – oil is no exception. Oil is the single biggest influencer on the human enterprise, without a doubt, where oil goes we follow. There are replacements, just none that come into play quickly enough to offer a liberating degree of fungibility for this item, as George Bush said “we are addicted to it”.  When oil goes up, economic growth wanes, it is a constraint or boon to the economy; a cursory review of the modern economy indicates this reality. The good news is that there has been somewhat of decoupling of oil and GDP post the 1970s oil crisis. The move to a more efficient fleet is partly responsible and of course, we have moved to a more “intellectually” based economy – less physical stuff relative to information and services.  

Technology is giving access to more and more oil and we have yet to pursue the gasification of coal as an oil replacement, a process that was reported to be viable at about the present world price. In the 1980s, before tight gas was really accessible, coal gasification would have provided 100s of years of supply. The key point here is that we are nowhere near a point of reserve depletion to effect an economic imperative for the development of substitutes AND absent substitutes, the world will keep using oil for 100s of years. So then what is the best strategy for the environmental movement in the face of this reality?

Is the best near-term strategy to block Keystone and Gateway, only to have oil producers of ill repute fill the supply gap – NO! The rhetoric and fear-mongering that has emerged from the environment movement around pipelines, for example, is unadulterated fear-mongering. We have had pipelines for years and for the most part they have given safe service with very few environmentally significant failures. The present activities of Kinder Morgan in twinning their present facilities through British Columbia are meeting resistance, there is no rational reason from a safety perspective to oppose these actions, the pipeline’s record is exemplary. The desire to block pipelines is to obstruct the exportation of Canadian gas and oil, specifically, oilsands oil. How is this a rational course of action – WHEN WE KNOW – that the producers of ill repute will fill the supply gap.

In Canada, we have processes for the review of projects. In Canada, we have tort recourse in the courts. In Canada, people can object, and protest the works. In Canada, people of conscience can review the industry and its conduct, and effect influence over that conduct. Canada has in effect, by being a country of conscience, facilitated the means to have our industry attacked. We are one, of very few, significant producers in the world that can offer ongoing monitoring and control of operations.

I offer this to the North American environmental movement as a strategy, stop punishing the “best of a bad bunch”, Canadian oil on all fronts offers benefits relative to other producers. Then, through political means, pressure the government to tax oil exports to facilitate the transition to different energy sources and or the development of technologies that render fossil fuel use harmonious with natural systems. The mission statement might be, that by 2045 fossil fuel use in Canada will have no net “long-term” negative impact on the environment. 

There have been targets before and targets have faded in the face of pragmatism, a pragmatism born of the reality that our oil is sold as a commodity alongside the oil from the producers of ill repute. It is an obscene paradox, that is obstructing the Canadian oil industry the environmental movement is affecting a net degradation to the WORLD environment and shoring up regimes of oppression. The obstruction that is occurring in Canada from the environment review processes and the rest of the industry’s regulatory processes costs the industry money and negatively impacts its competitiveness in the world market. If the environmental movement “got behind” our industry, and reduced the obstruction occurring now, the environmental movement would be in a position to levy the industry for funds for research and development of substitutes and or remediation of fossil fuel use – the means to facilitate transition would come to hand. The environment movement has to manage the axis of, on the one hand asserting their requirements and on the other, facilitating the financial strength of a good producer; in this way, like the martial arts, the environmental movement uses the weight of its opponent to meet its own ends.   

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

Environmentalism Redefined - The Road to Prosperity

Environmentalism Redefined - The Road to Prosperity  

Some thoughts for the way forward. 

To imagine a world of harmony between man and nature may have been beyond the possible just a half-century ago, but now with the world’s knowledge doubling every few months and the world’s people able to speak to one another with such ease, I am hopeful. Beyond human knowledge and ability, lies something stronger, the human spirit. The most heartening thing I witness now is the spirit and strength of will that finds expression in our young people; they are conservationists who know and expect a good life; this fusion of ethnic and expected experience will guide them to take us closer to the harmony we all wish for.

One wishes the environmental movement would define its mandate solely with environmental clarity and pursue it with focus; the extraneous adjunct of social concern is hampering its progress. If climate change isn't an issue but an emergency, as Mr. Gore likes to remind us, then please environmental brain trust seek a solution, a solution that provides abundance within natural systems. The solution posited now – subsistence for all – is as disturbing in its acceptance as it in its misinterpretation of reality; the earth is a generous provider – abundant energy is the reality. There is a “silver bullet”, it is a matter of turning the environmentalist ship from “hyper conservation distorted by social concern” to the clear pursuit of a solution. Imagine if you will the mass of resources spent now on opposing everything, fighting the oil industry and industry at large – now imagine those resources directed at the real solution, a viable replacement for fossil fuels or fossil fuels' agreeable use.    

It is my sincere hope, that a few words on a page can give young people insight into the prosperity we enjoy in the first world, its source being the freedom we have to pursue prosperity through largely unfettered enterprise. Be wary of people who detract from that source of prosperity, the marketplace in concert with natural systems, in the absence of distorting policy will surely bring us closer to harmony with natural systems, than the social engineers who have embedded themselves in the environmental movement. The communitarians whispering promises of social justice through equality have had their chance and failed many in the process. In the presence of abundance, humans become most rational, kind and generous. Prosperity is the best guarantee for a safer and healthier world. Prosperity is a much better offering to the world's needy than the most hideous proposition of subsistence. Trade at its apex of execution will eradicate the prosperity asymmetry that now grips our world. Enterprise linked to the natural world will build an economy prosperous and in harmony with nature.    

  

Environmentalism Reconsidered - Canadian Oil V. World Oil

Environmentalism Reconsidered - Canadian Oil V. World Oil 

Letter to the New York Times - More to Come - This serves as a primer. 

Dear Editor

This letter is in response to the NYT article of May 18, titled A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit. Firstly, please allow me to thank you for the imagery – the Canadian black monster that ate Manhattan may have been more credible.

Allow me premise my comments by offering a brief mission statement for North American oil policy, so that readers may gain their bearings in regard to what I believe to be is a rational position on Oilsands development and oil policy in general.

MISSION STATEMENT: By 2043 North America’s fossil fuel’s net impact on the environment will be reduced to nil.

This mission statement is offered as a backdrop for thought-around policy and to offer a timeline for contemplation that permits transition rather than the immediate annihilation of the industry that some in the environmental movement seem to view as imperative.  

Regardless of your position on climate change, the solution to energy provision lies in a better energy source than what is presently used. There is little merit if you are advocating against fossil fuels, in forwarding environmental solution that seriously challenges immediate economic wellbeing; there is only public rebuke on that path. 

I am dismayed at the onslaught of “bad press” the Canadian Oil Sands and our industry in general receives. The sheer mountain of excrement that has been thrown against this wall astounds and to all our folly, much has stuck.

If one assumes that the world will need oil for some time to come, that in the present world circumstance there is a given demand for oil, that there is a supply for provision of the oil, and that no viable alternative exists – then it is rational to believe the oil will be delivered and used. Given this reality and in choosing a supplier of oil, the question then is, which oil offers the most hope for transition, the least immediate impact and the most social benefit – you need look no further than Canada.

Where would you rather source your oil, Nigeria perhaps; a jurisdiction that still flares millions of cubic feet of natural gas as waist and considers oil in rivers as being a part of doing business. Think if you will beyond just the environment, Nigeria, it is reported, has much of it’s oil revenues syphoned off to Swiss Bank accounts while the population lives in relative squalor. Canada is a responsible oil producer, the environmental movement has access to our regulatory process and influences industry behavior – to what extent does this occur in other jurisdictions; we are in effect the victim of our own good practices in this regard, in that we provision the forum for the environment movement to “attack” our industry, undoubtedly if the environmental movement thought they could effect change in Nigeria they would be as vigorous in their rebuke of that nation’s oil. Further, the men and women in our oil industry are very well paid, Fort McMurry Alberta is home to people from all over Canada, who would be otherwise unemployed or underemployed – please note men AND WOMEN!

Your article is less than flattering toward the Oil Sands oil, associating it with growing mounds of black and positing statements like “It’s really the dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth,”. One needs to contemplate Oil Sands oil honestly, perhaps by degree these statements are true, but only by a relatively small margin.  At the tailpipe FOB New York, Oil Sands oil is only marginally higher in carbon emissions than other sourced oil, rarely more than 12% and often at par. The complexity of assessing these issues and the mass of variables makes clear communication on the subject difficult, so someone will refute that number, regardless, however, the oil will be consumed.    

Canadians want to refine oil on-site if possible, we see the added benefit that accrues to us by doing so. We have faced realities that thwart this desire. Oil Refining is a very marginal business and capital intensive, generating a circumstance where shipping oil to an existing plant offers superior financial benefit. The environmental review processes in Canada all but precludes new plants. Our partners in the US want to use their refining capacity in an effort to render, what amounts to, stranded capital productive again.

The US and Canada have a common cause on so many fronts, the fractious nature of this debate is disturbing; it does us both well to remember we contribute to each other’s security, while many of the other US suppliers of oil do not.

The environmental movement is running, like the Dutch boy with many fingers and many holes in the dike, finding new and ingenious ways to stifle the use of, what is by all measures, a superior product. A mound of coke here, a keystone pipeline there – while they spin their tires and permit irresponsible producers of oil to prosper – they leave the solution unaddressed. Rather than flail at Canadian oil, they ought to be demanding earmarked royalties to support the transition, rather than running headlong into the brick wall of economic concern, they should be harmonizing their interests with what is an overwhelming reality; the world needs oil – for now.

We're a good bunch of good friends up here, quit picking on us!

Click Here to Access Inverine's Website - Thank You