Are Harper and his ilk just born liars? Can their warped, Born Again brains even recognize truth?
Courtesy of The Tyee, the latest Northern Gateway pipeline outrage. It now turns out that pipeline is designed to carry 60% more toxic sludge bitumen than claimed that could translate into many hundreds of additional tankers passing through British Columbia's coastal waters.
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper may need to do more than rush these projects through under cover of legislative shelter.
"Particularly when British Columbians learn the true magnitude of what these projects mean for tanker traffic.
"So far, Kinder Morgan has told us their twinned pipeline proposal would expand capacity from 300,000 barrels per day and 71 tankers a year to 850,000 barrels per day and more than five times the tankers.
"That's an oil tanker a day transiting Burrard Inlet.
"We've also been told that Enbridge's Northern Gateway project represents 525,000 barrels a day of crude oil flowing along the pipeline into Kitimat, and 193,000 barrels a day of condensate flowing along a pipeline in the other direction, out of Kitimat. Every year, 220 tankers will navigate the difficult and vulnerable Douglas Channel in order to pick up raw crude and drop off toxic condensate.
"What most people don't know is Northern Gateway has been designed to carry 60 per cent more crude oil and 40 per cent more condensate -- all that's required is an increase in pumping power along the pipeline route.
"... More crude, more condensate, more tankers, more risk -- way more risk.
"Hidden in the thousands of pages of evidence filed with the National Energy Board is Enbridge's intended capacity expansion plan. It's imbedded in an answer to a National Energy Board Joint Review Panel question requesting "a detailed description of the potential expansion scenarios which could be possible by adding additional pump stations and pumping facilities."
"Enbridge notes in their documents that "these expansion scenarios and associated facilities are not part of the applied for project... any future expansion scenarios and associated facilities beyond the applied for project would be the subject of future regulatory application."
"But there is no mandatory hearing requirement for modifications to existing pipeline systems. The legislation is very clear on this, as are NEB publications. 'Hearings are not required for additions to existing systems.'"
Harper is beginning to look more and more like Captain Ahab, Mound. He's going to get that white whale -- regardless of the consequences.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Owen. I see him more as the guy with the cigarette, dark glasses and wheelchair - Dr. Strangelove.
ReplyDeleteMound, Owen — you guys are too nice. Stevie is neither that driven (Ahab) nor that intelligent (Dr. S.); he's not even "cheap steak tough" like Gil Scott-Heron called Reagan. Nope, Stevie's a sly bully, in the same fashion as that appalling sheriff in Arizona. The thing about bullies is that they get lazy and they make mistakes.
ReplyDeleteHarper is a Neo-Nazi of his Northern Foundation Party from 1989. The skinheads organized that fascist party.
ReplyDeleteHarper as all dictators, is far too arrogant and stubborn to listen to anybody. I was watching, the rise of evil, about Hitler. Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and Harper all have the same typo personalities. They are all arrogant, stubborn and so paranoid, they had to control absolutely everything. Dictators don't feel safe unless they do.
Harper has been nothing other than, a litany of lies, deceit, thefts, corruption, dirty tactics, dirty politics and he most certainly did cheat to win, with his robo-call scam. Make no mistake, Harper is evil.
Harper wouldn't even hesitate to turn BC into a polluted wasteland or poison our sea. He would, absolutely lie about the toxicity of the sludge. Europe got nothing but false statements from Harper....regarding how bad the toxicity really was. Harper as we all know, does a lot of lies and deceit. Other country's dislike Harper, for his bullying and his hissy fits, when he doesn't get his own way. At every meeting of Nations, Harper is the trouble maker, every time. He is totally embarrassing.
Keep in mind that every bitumen loaded tanker, outbound to China will also have previously transited inbound full of Asian or Arabian condensate or diluent to be pipelined east to the tar sands. Thus two trips through our waters, per tanker. Common sense indicates the inbound transit has less sailing flexibility while arriving in storms, An outbound transit can remain in harbor due to gale warnings. We know the two cargoes are very different chemically and regarding spill dispersion.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, China is currently building this VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) fleet of ship. Enbridge or any tar sands/pipeline entity has ZERO control or jurisdiction regarding a tanker arriving/leaving port or regarding local or blue water navigation or ballast venting.
There are a number of eloquent articles by Canadian Master Mariners, local fishermen regarding actual passage to or from Kitimaat, the submarine dangers, tides, islands, winds, freshets, storms/wave heights and tug power requirements. Again, Enbridge has no role whatsoever in ship operations. Indeed, The Harper Government has been cutting funding to required navigation aids on the west coast.. and certainly seems unable to manage what they describe as an oil spill of less than one litre in the waters off Great Bear Rain Forest, much less remove the two sunken and leaking ships there.
Joe Oliver, Keith Ashfield, Peter Kent and Stephen Harper are dangerously glib.. Extend the surreal glossy views they hold about tankers and inevitable catastrophic spills, to pipelines and fracking.. then look at what they have achieved with the Boreal Forest and the Tar Sands. Their opinion regarding environment or habitat or Canadians are beneath contempt. They see us as unfortunate complications in the way of their economic plans.
Thanks for your insights, diamondwalker. Can you provide any links to the comments you referenced?
ReplyDeleteBTW, from what I read in the Victoria Times Colonist on Sunday I got the clear impression that Harper, Enbridge and China are building a liability cut-out into this scheme. The shipowner pays a token amount into an oil-spill fund. When the ship is lost the owner's insurance and contribution to the fund is the limit of the owner's liability. Enbridge, the oil companies and China are isolated from all liability which then falls to taxpayers.
These Tory greaseballs are outrageous.
These articles take you to the local waters, Hecate Strait, Douglas Channel etc
ReplyDeleteWe are now hearing that up to to 700 tankers could be transiting inbound and outbound from Kitimaat and Port Moody to the south annually. That's 1,400 trips and does not include existing marine traffic. Who will regulate sonar use by these Chinese ships? Ie the sonar that will drive cetaceans, mammals out of their habitat. Who can fish with traffic such as this plus accompanying sea tugs?
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/earthmatters/2012/04/23/marine-industry-experts-open-letter-against-enbridge-pipeline-and
-3 pager by Master Mariner
http://thecanadian.org/stories/your-voice3/item/1366-veteran-fisherman-serious-navigational-risks-supertankers-bc-coast-enbridge
-veteran commercial fisherman John Brajcich
http://tidalstation.blogspot.ca/
-A three parter re the 'plan to nowhere' & clarifying navigational requirements
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Hume+Pipeline+opposition+likely+grow+supertanker+risk+assessed/6423196/story.html
-How/where the bitumen will 'disperse'
http://tidechange.ca/?p=101647&upm_export=print
-re the Oil Co. Disclaimer
Another good blog dealing with marine issues is On the Waterfront.
ReplyDeleteI've been across the Hecate Strait and in Dixon Entrance and the whole idea is completely insane. And that was almost forty years ago, the weather is even freakier now.
Diamondwalker...what I heard the other late night broadcast from Austrailia about China is these tankers will be 360 kilometres long and 46 kilometres wide.
ReplyDelete@ Anyong. I think you mean metres, not kms.
ReplyDelete@ Koot - unasked is the question why we need to import dilutent at all and why it's necessary for us to then ship out dil-bit or diluted bitumen? Why do we have to ship slightly upgraded bitumen instead of a much safer, less contentious and more valuable synthetic crude oil?
The simple answer is that neither Ottawa nor Alberta wants to accept the environmental consequences of refining that sludge in Alberta. The carbon emissions alone would put Alberta off the charts. It would also expose the fraud of their carbon capture and sequestration scam. Transporting dil-bit is their way of keeping those carbon emissions off Ottawa's and Alberta's books and to do that they're more than ready to place British Columbia in jeopardy of catastrophe. And that is the type of pricks we're dealing with.
Look at Suncor re the evolving solutions/progress re 'Tailings Ponds'
ReplyDeleteI regret if this aspects leans off topic, but I feel it is a huge part of the tar sands/pipelines/tankers matrix.
My point is.. that whether the tar sands 'harvest' is piped west, or south, or processed within Alberta/Canada.. the tailings 'ponds' as they are so named, regardless of size.. may equal or exceed the issues of carbon release or downstream river/wetlands poisoning.. pipe rupture or tanker spill.
I hope the following link works.. (cut/paste)
If not.. search Suncor and Mature Fine Tailings. I think about these drying sediments going airborne and begin to think about down-wind American litigation soon to follow. Shall we review the chemical components bound to clay particles in the ponds, class ? Can you spell Mercury or Minimata ?
http://www.suncor.com/en/newsroom/2625.aspx?id=3233&__utma=1.476261812.1337005774.1337005774.1337005774.1&__utmb=1.2.10.1337005774&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1337005774.1.1.utmgclid=CO6wvM_-_68CFQfrKgod72EzOg|utmccn=(not%20set)|utmcmd=(not%20set)&__utmv=-&__utmk=162586684