Friday, February 02, 2018

Trudeau's Magical Thinking Falls Flat in Nanaimo



Straight from the horse's mouth today in Nanaimo:

"We wanted a national carbon reduction plan, a national emissions plan that is going to allow us to reach our climate goals, to reach our Paris commitments but in order to do that, part of moving forward is approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline. It is something many people feel very strongly about on either side, but that is the nature of the compromise we had to make in the best interests of Canada."

That's Trump-grade bullshit to be sure. We can't have a national emissions plan, we can't meet our commitments under the Paris Climate accord, unless we rapidly expand our extraction and export of the world's highest-cost/highest-carbon ersatz petroleum. 

The Dauphin doesn't grasp the concept of cognitive dissonance but the crowd in his Nanaimo townhall audience could smell the reek of it on him. Well I suppose it's comforting in a way that we're not the only country with a leader who will, at the drop of a hat, stand there and lie right to your face.

Yes, kids, the way to get speeding under control is for us to drive 90 mph through school zones.

You want a "compromise" Justin? There is a compromise to be had. Simply refine the bitumen on site in Athabasca. Refine out the heavy metals. Refine out the acids and toxins. Refine out the carcinogens. Refine out the pet-coke. Refine out the sludge. Leave those components, the chemicals that create the greatest and lasting threat to British Columbia and our coastal waters, where they belong, right where they came from.

You want a pipeline that respects British Columbia? Come back to us with a proposal to transport fully refined, synthetic crude. With all the dilbit garbage removed - the diluent and the dangerous by-products - you won't need nearly as many tankers. Fewer tankers =  lessened risk of marine accidents. And, when you do have a catastrophic accident - and the Coast Guard, RCN officers and merchant mariners have all testified it's only a matter of when and how often - well then the worst we'll have to deal with is a conventional oil spill.

Damn your hide, Trudeau. You're a goddamned liar. 


6 comments:

Trailblazer said...

I don't think that Alberta can meet it's carbon emissions commitments if it processes at home hence the need to export it's liabilities.

TB

The Mound of Sound said...


You're right, TB. There's the added problem that doing the refining in situ would add costs that would clearly undermine any profitability. The only way they can pretend to make money from bitumen is to use the accounting 'externality' trick to offload that costly risk on the people of our province.

Anonymous said...

Exactly right, TB. Then we get to act all holier than thou and point the finger at China for polluting.

Notley and Trudeau don't seem to get that the world's all in this together. We either leave that tar in the ground or we all fry. It's time to make that case to Canadians instead of kicking the can down the road.

Cap

ffibs said...

But MoS, you are not giving him credit to go into the lions den and face these unvetted questions. Brave in comparison to the closet hiding Harper. Bravery, no less.

Which was the message that the CBC and I guess the LPC wanted to convey. The CBC followed up their clips of the PM, with an interview of the ex-CEO of TransCan to explain how failure to lay the pipe will risk all future investment in Canada.

Yeah, the fact he is lying is being buried.

Hugh said...

We will begin our plan to reduce GHG emissions by increasing GHG emissions.

Northern PoV said...

Two years in and he's gone full "news-speak"

Winston Smith, RIP