Pipelines safely move millions of barrels of oil annually

For all the hyperbole, hand-wringing and doomsaying by environmental zealots in B.C., the truth about pipelines in the province, and in particular Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, is only one of 19 petroleum spills reported so far in 2017 relate to a pipeline incident. That minor spill would have been contained, repaired and remediated by the oil company at no cost to B.C. taxpayers.

In comparison, however, the 861 wildfires so far this year in B.C. have consumed 491,000 hectares of forest, forced the evacuation of 6,700 residents and cost taxpayers $204 million in firefighting costs, which speaks nothing of the economic loss of the potential wood products consumed in the ongoing wildfire crisis.

Werner Kurz, senior research scientist for the Canadian Forest Service, reportedly advised that the average release of CO2 and other GHG related to the Fort McMurray fires in Alberta was about 170 tonnes per burned hectare. This would put emissions related to the B.C. wildfires so far this year at about 83.5 megatonnes. For perspective, Canada, as a whole, has been bumping along at something over 700 megatonnes per year, so these fires have added more than 10 per cent to Canada’s overall emissions.

In the meantime, the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline transports 300,000 barrels of oil per day, every day, from Alberta to its West Coast terminals. By my calculation, that equates to about 110 million barrels of oil transported safely every year, while B.C. residents eat, sleep and go about their daily business, which, incidentally, includes consuming petroleum-based products at First World rates.

Apparently, no forests have been harmed or consumed in that daily process, no B.C. residents have been forced to evacuate their homes, no B.C. tax dollars have been spent (although many B.C. tax dollars have been harvested) and no material GHGs have been emitted.

Les Burden, Calgary