Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:
Maybe they're waiting to see if Blacks refinery at Kitimat is a go before they'll give the go ahead.
Unfortunately for Alberta they're trying to put a pipeline through a province that has a hardcore Anybody But Enbridge policy which, when you think about it is understandable.
Just out of curiosity, would the pipeline be more palatable if it was set down a different route, one that avoids the earthquake-happy and ecologically sensitive areas that so many British Columbians are concerned about? And what if the oil was shipped from another port, one that didn't require tankers to sail through such precarious straits? Or would that make the pipeline unprofitable?
I wonder whether the Harper government hasn't made Northern Gateway a much tougher sell than it would be with some of the things it's done over the last year. Didn't they unilaterally eliminate a bunch of environmental reviews through last summer's omnibus bills, declare that the final word on the pipeline would be up to the federal Cabinet no matter what the National Energy Board says, require people who want to register to speak about the pipeline to fill out a ten-page form, and drastically reduce the number of forums at which people had the opportunity to speak? And those are just the official actions-what about Mike Duffy calling environmental groups "un-Canadian" for opposing the pipeline?
How's any of that supposed to ease concerns about the pipeline, much less convince opponents (who, as this very forum demonstrates, hail from all parties, including Conservatives) that it's a good thing? To me, it just makes the federal government come across as saying that they don't give a damn about anybody's concerns and that the pipeline is going through whether people want it or not. Is that the message BCers have been getting from Ottawa?
For the record, I actually would be quite happy to see a pipeline shipping Alberta oil to Asia, but the concerns BCers have raised make me doubt that the current route is the right one. Would another route work better?
CKA Uber 
CKA Moderator 
