Dear Editor
Re: Pipeline isn’t going to help the economy, Inbox, Burnaby NOW, Friday, July 22.
Firstly, Peter Cech is correct that parts of the new pipeline in Burnaby follow a different route than the original 1953 line. However, to Kinder Morgan’s credit, much of this is to recognize new building in Burnaby since 1953, or is responding to residents’ requests for rerouting. He is wrong in claiming that the project is not “twinning” the pipeline – in the pipeline industry, this is still called twinning a pipeline – like human twins, the pipelines are not always identical!
Mr. Cech provides not a shred of evidence that the shipping of dilbit would endanger jobs at Chevron’s Burnaby refinery as he claims. His claim that the product being shipped “would become diluted bitumen, not the semi-refined product currently being shipped” ignores the old line, which will remain in service as now mainly for conventional crude and petroleum products. Chevron did not oppose the project at the NEB, which may give a hint.
Mr. Cech appears horrified by my “short-sighted” comment that if we do not supply oil to Asia, others such as Venezuela and the Middle East will, and that they will reap the jobs, royalties and taxes instead of Canadians.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
Get over it!
John Hunter, P. Eng., president and CEO, J. Hunter & Associates Ltd.
