The world needs our oil and gas

DEAR EDITOR:

There have been some recent letters to the editor bashing the oil-and-gas industries that I consider fear mongering.

It’s true that the tar sands, as they are referred to, consist of bitumen and other earthy products, but that isn’t what you get at the service station. The socalled “dirty oil” is refined but that requires trains or pipelines to get the product to the refinery.

I personally prefer the pipeline approach as it has the least possibility of a spill. Unfortunately, there are many who are unable to digest and understand the need and worth of Canadian raw resources and the necessary means to produce and transport these resources.

If you want to develop the infrastructure, improve health care, provide a livable wage and create a balanced budget then a decent approach would be to support those industries that provide the necessary means to achieve these goals.

The alternative is that Canadian resources get shut down along with the funds needed to finance those goals while countries with even “dirtier oil” or those with questionable human rights are left to supply the world’s demand for their energy needs.

And make no mistake, the demand is there and the countries that need it produce far more pollution than Canada does.

Putin alone with his war will probably spew more pollution into the atmosphere than Canada will in the next 10 years. Greener energy is necessary, but it will take time and acceptable methods and products for this to happen.

In the meantime, we need what Canada has to offer and be aware that our oil and gas industries, with the right infrastructure and ongoing methods to reduce the impact on the environment, can and will be able to provide a large part of the world’s needs while creating the finances to help keep Canadians above the poverty line. Harry DeRosier,

Summerland