Pipeline project going nowhere

Given the formidable opposition forces that confront it, the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline might amount to nothing more than a pipe dream, ultimately.

Though the federal government approved Enbridge’s $7.9-billion project, it seems a slim possibility at best that bitumen might one day flow from Alberta though a 1,177-kilometre pipeline to a Pacific coast port at Kitimat, where it would be loaded onto super tankers headed for Asia and beyond.

Yes, there are solid economic reasons why this pipeline should proceed. Indeed, it’s not a far-fetched argument that this project is in the long-term national interest since bitumen exports to Asia would earn billions of dollars that benefit all Canadians.

Proponents also argue we need new export markets to lessen our dependency on sales to the U.S. Let’s not forget that the Obama administration is stalling approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries and wants to exploit America’s oil and natural gas reserves for eventual “energy independence.”

Saskatchewan — Canada’s second-biggest oil producer after Alberta — also has an interest in seeing Gateway proceed, even though it would carry none of our oil. When his government passed a motion in March supporting the project, Premier Brad Wall noted, “If we get Canadian oil to tidewater like these pipelines will do, it will increase the value at which we (Saskatchewan) can sell.”

Let’s add to all this the fact that moving oil by pipeline is far preferable to putting it on trains and trucks.

Weighing against this project are serious environmental concerns that can’t be dismissed easily. The risk of a pipeline fracture weighs heavily, since the line would pass though pristine wilderness where a major leak could devastate wildlife on land and in salmon-bearing rivers. Cleaning up a spill in remote areas would be a huge challenge.

First Nations, municipalities and environmentalists are also concerned at the possibility of a maritime disaster involving supertankers coming in and out of Kitimat through the narrow Douglas Channel to the Pacific Ocean.

Though stringent safety measures have been promised — including thicker pipe at river crossings and special handling of oil tankers — and a special review panel attached more than 200 conditions to the project, opponents remain unconvinced.

More than 30 B.C. First Nations and aboriginal groups this week vowed legal action, with one chief saying, “Under no circumstances ... will there be a heavy oil pipeline through our territory.” Lawsuits from other groups are also pending.

Premier Christy Clark also says the project still doesn’t satisfy her government’s concerns, and with a federal election looming next year, the federal NDP and Liberals have vowed to stop the project if they form government.

Though prospects for success for this pipeline seem dim, there is a potential — if unlikely — game-changing move if aboriginal groups can be persuaded of the project’s economic benefits and safety by Ottawa and Enbridge.

But for now, and perhaps forever, this week’s decision has moved us closer to fighting in the courtroom than to putting pipe in the ground. The editorials that appear in this space represent the opinion of The StarPhoenix. They are unsigned because they do not necessarily represent the personal views of the writers. The positions taken in the editorials are arrived at through discussion among the members of the newspaper’s editorial board, which operates independently from the news departments of the paper.