SOME TRUTHS ABOUT TANKERS
WASHINGTON STATE’S STAND AGAINST TRANS MOUNTAIN IS HYPOCRISY
Last week, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee endorsed B.C.’s push to block construction of the federally approved Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
“We are hopeful that the premier’s efforts to allow the voices of his citizens to be listened to will be successful, because it is very much in common with our citizens,” Inslee said. The weekend also saw kayaking protesters in Seattle paddle around in opposition to the $7.4-billion Canadian pipeline project.
Before Washington state leans too far into its new role as an opponent of West Coast oil tankers, it’s worth remembering a few things.
STATE DEPENDENT ON TANKERS
B.C. can easily fill its gas stations without a single oil tanker entering the Salish Sea. Thanks to the energy superpower just over the Rocky Mountains, up to 90 per cent of B.C.’s fuel already arrives overland from Alberta via pipeline or by rail. Not so for Washington state. The state has no permanent connection to the U.S. oil market, and relies entirely on oil trains, oil tankers and the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to supply its refineries. In 2017, inbound oil tankers were responsible for 46 per cent of Washington state’s crude imports. And yes, this does indeed include tankers full of diluted bitumen from the existing Trans Mountain network. In fact, along with California and Asia, Washington state has been cited by Kinder Morgan as one of the target customers of the project.
TANKER OIL IS MOSTLY ALASKAN
Oil tankers filling up at the Trans Mountain terminus won’t be spending all that much time in B.C. waters. From Burnaby’s Westridge Terminal they’ll head west through the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the open ocean. By contrast, right now thousands of Washington motorists are gassing up with fuel that has just finished a cruise of the entire coast of British Columbia. According to Washington’s Department of Ecology, up to 70 per cent of oil imported by sea into the state originated in Alaska. To be fair, however, the route has been pretty uneventful for B.C. Large oil tankers are not allowed through B.C.’s narrow Inside Passage. Since 1985 Alaska-to-Washington tankers also observe a “voluntary exclusion zone” that steers them well clear of Haida Gwaii and the west coast of Vancouver Island. Most notably, the Exxon Valdez crashed well before it set a course off the B.C. coast.
MOST TANKERS WILL STILL BE WASHINGTON-BOUND
A 2014 B.C. government presentation on Salish Sea spill risk noted that even with the vast expansion of tanker traffic anticipated by a Trans Mountain expansion, the majority of tankers crossing the Salish Sea would still come by way of Puget Sound. In 2012 there were 1,197 tanker “movements” through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, according to the National Energy Board. When operating at full capacity, the Trans Mountain pipeline will tack on only an additional 720 tanker movements. Some years, in fact, the total of extra vessels brought to the Salish Sea by Trans Mountain will be comparable to the traffic at a single Washington oil refinery. Cherry Point, a BP refinery within sight of Metro Vancouver, counted an average of 321 calls from oil tankers between 1998 and 2010. The Trans Mountain expansion is expected to add only 300 tankers per year into the region.
WASHINGTON BURNS A LOT OF ALBERTA FOSSIL FUELS
Another popular reason for opposing the Trans Mountain expansion is that it would encourage increased exploitation of the energyintensive Athabasca oilsands. Gasoline derived from oilsands bitumen has a carbon footprint between 15-per-cent and 30-per-cent higher than gasoline from conventional oil. This is what has prompted U.S. activists to dub Alberta petroleum the “dirtiest oil on Earth” (even if that title should more correctly be attributed to crude strains in Nigeria and California). But while Washington state may pooh-pooh Alberta’s extraction methods, the state has a uniquely powerful thirst for its oil products. Alberta oil products shipped through the Trans Mountain pipeline supplied 28.5 per cent of Washington’s petroleum needs in 2017. In fact, the majority of product now moved through the Trans Mountain pipeline ends up in Washington hands. In 2017 the state also shipped in 4,092,715 barrels of product using Alberta oil trains.