Justin Trudeau Vows To Ram Through Kinder Morgan Pipeline; Gov May Buy A Stake In It
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to roll over opposition from British Columbia and see that an 890,000-barrel-a-day oil pipeline is completed linking Alberta oil fields with an oil export port just east of Vancouver. "This is something Canadians expect us to do and quite frankly international investors who look at creating jobs in Canada want to see us able to do," Trudeau told the press Sunday, after a meeting with B.C. Premier John Horgan and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
The British Columbia government has opposed the $7.4 billion project, fearful of environmental and economic damage that a tanker spill would do to the Salish Sea, Gulf Islands and San Juan Islands, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the West Coast.
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Trudeau said the Canadian government will "initiate formal financial discussions with Kinder Morgan," perhaps to give the government a financial stake in the project. The "financial discussions" will be in private. Trudeau pledges legislation in the House of Commons that "will assert and reinforce the government of Canada's jurisdiction in this matter which we know we clearly have."
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The Kinder Morgan project would triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline. It would mean a seven fold increase in oil tanker traffic. Thirty-four laden oil tankers a month would pass through sensitive marine waters shared by the United States and Canada. Treudeau has pledged to spend $1.5 billion (Canadian) to increase marine safety and oil spill response in marine waters and along the west coast of Canada.
In some places, however, spill containment would be nigh impossible. The oil tankers would pass through narrow channels of Burrard Inlet and Haro Strait, which separates the San Juan and Gulf Islands. Such are offshore currents that a 1988 bunker oil spill off Grays Harbor fouled beaches in both Olympic National Park and Canada's Pacific Rim National Park.
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https://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Connelly-Trudeau-vows-to-ram-through-oil-12839041.php#photo-7795170
