Dear Editor:
Christy Clark’s predictable approval of KinderMorgan’s pipeline jeopardizes our coast, betrays B.C. interests and makes a mockery of “climate leadership.” But Enbridge’s Northern Gateway was also rubber-stamped by Big Oil’s political handmaidens, and it’s dead.
If our communities stick together, KM will be beaten too. We can support First Nations’ current legal challenges to the farcical pipeline approval process. We can defeat the Clark government next May and replace it with one that sees a greener path to low-carbon prosperity. If necessary, we can support a provincial referendum. If all else fails, we can join Burnaby’s mayor on the blockades and the 20,000 people who have already pledged to do “whatever it takes” to stop it.
Besides exaggerating economic benefits and underestimating risks, KM’s expensive propaganda ignores the downstream impact on global warming, the Alberta government’s ceiling on tarsands expansion, the relative safety of bitumen transport by rail, Canada’s own energy security, the huge job potential of investing billions in renewable energy rather than marine “protection” against unfixable bitumen tanker spills, and much else. (For an information antidote, see thetyee.ca and policyalternatives.ca.)
According to financial analysts, investors and contractors have cause to be nervous about KM’s prospects, even with the political elite’s acquiescence.
The more the project is delayed, the more likely they are to pull out. Let’s encourage them to do so.
Bob Hackett, by email
