Quote:
Originally Posted by Regorium
The problem with this is that people are talking about tanker safety and traffic, and pinning that on the pipeline company. People are talking about emissions in the oilsands and that's the pipeline's fault. People are talking about cheap heating for houses and people driving too much, and that's the pipeline's fault too.
My issue with a lot of these things is that pipelines are unfairly blamed for a lot of upstream/downstream effects (eg. the BC gov and the letter from all those professors). I don't see, for example, people protesting GM/Ford plants because every additional car on the road causes pollution! I don't see people protesting about tanker safety, more strict regulations on tanker certification and inspections or anything like that. It's all the pipeline's fault.
Somehow, pipelines became the symbol for which all of the world's problems can be blamed. As someone that has done a public consultation (KXL), it was unbelievable to me. I came to the consultation prepared with water crossing studies, soil studies, integrity studies and the like. Then someone asked me how we planned to deal with increased smog over cities from increased driving due to the pipeline.
That's the kind of stuff we have to deal with, so as a someone in pipelines, I think that kind of shows where we're coming from when we get cynical about "environmental issues".
|
The oilsands aren't protected like Manufacturing because of the concentration of voters in Ontario manufacturing sectors. The automotive industry is never really going to be successfully attacked because of the number of people they employ and that the automotive industry controls the narrative.
Frankly the Alberta energy sector is under attack because its easy to attack globally and then people pick up the cause because DiCaprio thinks its important, and because a ton of money is supporting the protests.
Nobody really attacks China, because China wouldn't give a crap nor would India.
Nobody attacks the California oil field disasters because of big money, and a President that is focused on global and not national climate issues.
Nobody protests the coal industry because its not sexy and that industry protects itself like a steroid boosted wolverine with rabies.
Globally the Oilsands, really isn't the biggest issue to be tackled, but its the easiest to be attacked.