Coal is king for those B.C. eco-warriors

Here’s a quick pop-up quiz to take your mind off wondering whether winter will ever end.

What’s British Columbia’s largest single export commodity? OK, here’s a clue. It’s certainly not oil from Alberta, nor is it U.S.-made Tesla cars.

Anyone guessing miniature replicas of Victoria’s Empress Hotel made from recycled paper deserves credit for imagination, but still falls short.

The correct answer is coal. Yes, that awful polluting mineral tarred with being the worst environmental nightmare for a planet that’s rapidly warming.

If you don’t believe it — understandable given the current weeping and wailing about the threat to life itself here on our Blue Planet due to expanding the Kinder Morgan pipeline — then don’t take my word for it. Here’s what B.C.’s own Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources wrote in a recent annual report:

“Coal production is a mainstay of the province’s economy, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue and supporting thousands of well-paid jobs. Coal production currently represents over half of the total mineral production revenues in the province. Coal is B.C.’s largest single export commodity.”

In fact, the green-lovers west of us love coal so much, they actually import the black stuff from the U.S. to then export. And why wouldn’t some of those northwestern states do such overseas exporting themselves? Because their own local environmentalists have kicked up such a fuss, it’s easier to ship it to Vancouver and dodge the eco-warriors.

In all, about 80 per cent of Canada’s 37 million tonnes of annual coal exports (never mind the extra stuff we bring in from the United

Coal production is a mainstay of the province’s economy.

States) is shipped through B.C. ports. No wonder the province is expanding facilities to deal with this bonanza.

Once, there was a good-natured contest between Alberta and B.C. for the crown as Canada’s top coal producer. Federal statistics for 2016 show those dastardly miners over the provincial border were nipping us at the post — B.C. with 43 per cent of total Canadian production, versus our “close but no cigar” 42 per cent.

Ah, but that won’t last. In Alberta, the Notley government — happily supported by the oil and gas crowd who can smell the death of a competitor from the penthouse suite — is shuttering our coal industry and thereby driving a spike through the heart of many communities, all in the name of environmental stewardship.

Such looming closures will probably cause export volume issues for the Port of Vancouver, but I’m sure they can make up any future shortfall from Alberta by bringing in more supplies from our U.S cousins before merrily shipping it all off to Asia.

This takes hypocrisy to a whole new level. It even dwarfs B.C. Premier John Horgan’s whining to the Trudeau government to do something about the recent high cost of gasoline.

It’s well established that, in terms of carbon emissions, burning coal is about as costly as it gets, which is why the Alberta government moved to deliberately destroy that industry at great future expense to the treasury and to us all, who’ll undoubtedly face a bigger tab to heat and power our homes down the line.

Yet, have we heard a peep from the Lotus-landers on this? Where are the protesters swarming over those Pacific ports demanding a halt to ships taking Canuck coal to Japan or China? And how about strapping themselves to the gates of the mines in Sparwood and Elkford?

Or laying down in solidarity on rail tracks bringing U.S. coal into Canada? As Simon and Garfunkel once sang, all you’ll hear is the sound of silence.

Can anything be done about this ludicrous situation? Probably not, though a rather intriguing suggestion springs to mind.

What if we threatened the environmental lobby group that’s currently ruling the roost in B.C. that they’d better accept our oil for export or — golly gee, we aren’t kidding — we’ll stop sending them our coal for shipment to Asia.

Only in Canada, you say? Yes, true enough.