Dear Editor
Let us divide the Kinder Morgan pipeline issue into two components, climate change and getting bitumen from Alberta to tidewater. If we put aside climate change, we should certainly do our part to help Alberta get its bitumen to world markets. Then the question becomes how to do it and by what route?
Clearly the most intelligent shipping method is to send undiluted bitumen by rail, because cleaning up a spill is like cleaning up peanut butter; there will be little or no contamination if it is done properly, and nobody will be breathing the cancer-causing chemicals that are added to bitumen to make it flow in a pipeline. There have been at least two serious proposals for shipping the bitumen by rail already. The obvious route is to Prince Rupert as the rail line already exists.
Would this cost more than the pipeline? I do not know, but it would be worth it to reduce the risks to human health and the environment. It would also provide more flexibility as it would be much easier to stop it if that were deemed necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or became desirable for oil companies if it became unprofitable.
This solution should only be considered if the federal government can show a plan in which this is consistent with our climate commitments.
David Huntley, Burnaby
