Inslee’s pipeline stance is self-serving

Re: “Washington neighbours ‘allied’ with B.C. on Trans Mountain,” March 17.

It is a bit rich for Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee to criticize the Trans Mountain pipeline construction when his state has some of the largest oil infrastructure on the West Coast.

Yearly, there are almost 1,200 oiltanker movements from Alaska to Washington, passing within six nautical miles of Vancouver Island. Additionally, 28 per cent of the oil (diluted bitumen) going to the Washington state refineries travels via the existing Trans Mountain pipeline, with additional oil transported by thousands of rail cars from Alberta.

It is in the Americans’ interest to limit, by all means possible, any increase in Canadian oil production and to limit any means of moving it to non-American markets. The Americans have been successful to the degree that most Canadian opponents and campaigns are largely provisioned by millions of dollars from American mega environmental NGOs.

The result has been total constipation of our process to approve resource projects, an 11 per cent increase in U.S. oil production (making the U.S. one of the largest oil producers in the world), throttled Canadian production, Canadian oil discounted $15.6 billion annually, and Canadian oil companies moving to and investing in U.S. oil production and pipelines.

Go figure.

Sharon Allen Victoria