The Eagle Spirit pipeline option

Re: “Delaying pipeline projects leads to economic loss for Canadians, Opinion,” July 20

Gerry Angevine and Kenneth Green write that the proposed Energy East Pipeline, Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion and Northern Gateway Pipeline projects would enable about two million barrels a day of western Canadian crude to access coastal U.S. and overseas markets.

However, the Eagle Spirit pipeline proposal, which garnered nary a mention by the Fraser Institute, would ship two million barrels of western crude a day in a potential energy corridor also containing natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines, from Fort McMurray through northern B.C. to Prince Rupert — by far the safest port on the West Coast for a marine oil terminal.

Eagle Spirit could do this and save many billions of dollars in capital and operating costs, while minimizing environmental impacts, by laying the pipelines at the same time in a single energy corridor that has already obtained 95 per cent of First Nations approvals.

It’s high time industry, and the governments of B.C. and Alberta as well as the federal government, started to clue in to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Mike Priaro, Calgary