Dear Editor:
Re: Sober second look needed in this situation, Opinion, Burnaby NOW, Nov. 21.
I couldn't agree more with your calming editorial. As a spokesperson for BROKE (Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion) for the past two-and-a-half years, I have considered many of the local risks which you mention.
I would add the dangers of accident-free operation: the impact on Chilliwack's air quality from the growth of diesel PM2.5 from tankers, tugs, coal trains and container trucks coming from a greatly expanded Deltaport.
Add the pollution from expanded Fraser Surrey Docks, Neptune terminals and Kinder Morgan's proposed three berths.
What about the "normal spillage" of dilbit from three berths instead of one? What about the dredging required to squeeze those huge tankers under the Second Narrows railroad bridge at high tide?
And the best-case scenario we could hope for is: no noise, no fumes, no spills on land or water, and all that carbon gets spilled into the atmosphere as intended. All that subsidized carbon melts the Arctic while clean solar limps along.
Meanwhile, the economist Robyn Allan, former CEO of ICBC, finds that Kinder Morgan is not paying anything like its fair share of taxes. Too bad we all can't pay next to nothing on taxes and instead fund the campaigns of those who enrich us. The National Energy Board is so corrupt, it puts the fox in the henhouse to shame.
That's why I made a mock coffin that says "K-M GREED KILLS JUSTICE."
Oh yes. let's not forget First Nations' "free, prior and informed consent."
Kinder Morgan did.
Karl Perrin, Burnaby
