Globe & Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson writes that the Enbridge/Harper/China Northern Gateway pipeline proposal is dead - stone cold dead.
To survive, the Gateway pipeline would have to push past the growing opposition of British Columbians in general, the opposition of the current Liberal provincial government and the NDP government likely to replace it next year, the unanimous opposition of environmentalists, considerable opposition from at least some of the aboriginal groups along the route and, if all this were not enough, the likelihood of prolonged court battles.
What’s not standing in the way are U.S. environmentalists, whom the Harper government accused of being the principal reasons for the project’s problems. This wild statement was, then as now, completely at variance with reality, since British Columbians are hardly to be led around by their collective nose by a handful of folks from south of the border. To suggest otherwise is to insult their intelligence.
This is music to the ears of a majority of British Columbians who aren't as addled as so many in the rest of Canada who believe supertanker traffic through our northern archipelago was a dandy idea. It probably won't sit well with the premiers either who were looking to filling their coffers from the Northern Gateway gravy train.
But there's still hope. Simpson notes, "Shipping more oil to Eastern Canada seems to be the easiest option politically of all.
But bitumen oil to Asia through northern B.C. just ain’t going to happen."
Shipping that sludge to Eastern Canada is a terrific idea. All those provinces that were so happy to back the pipeline so long as it went through British Columbia surely won't have any qualms about Enbridge running a few pipelines across their turf. Oh, and did we mention the jobs? It's going to take more than a few workers to run lines all the way from Athabasca to Halifax. Good luck with that.
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