Skip to content

Get on right side of history, no to Kinder Morgan

We don’t need more tankers and pipelines that break down eventually spilling toxic materials
10948977_web1_Letters-logo-2-660x440

Get on right side of history, no to Kinder Morgan

We don’t need to continue down the wrong path of history. We don’t need more tankers and pipelines that break down eventually spilling toxic materials, we don’t need toxic materials and substances anymore!

We have the technology to feed a new renewable, bright, job-filled future. We have the technology to build energy and the economy in a risk free, harm free way to better our future for one and for all, that includes the creatures and environment that support us.

The only thing we’re missing is you fighting for it.

Please take a stand, before society becomes too poisoned to stand for anything at all.

Matthew Ethier

Salt Spring Island

P.S.: Kinder Morgan would increase tanker traffic nearly 700 per cent to 400 tankers a year in Vancouver’s busy inner harbour, passing by Stanley Park and hundreds of kilometres of beaches, islands and coastal wilderness.

Spills are inevitable. The existing Trans Mountain pipeline has already spilled 82 times. That’s 5.5 million litres of oil. Even brand new pipelines are spill-prone (Nexen), and the recent MV Marathassa and Nathan E Stewart spills into coastal waters show that B.C. is not prepared for a spill. Kinder Morgan has been responsible for 1,848 oil and chemical spill violations since 1997, hardly inspiring confidence.

Cleanup is impossible: There is no such thing as “world-class” spill response. Industry considers “success” in cleanup to be a recovery of 10-15 per cent of conventional oil. Leaving 85 per cent of an oil spill in the marine environment is unacceptable. Kinder Morgan’s diluted bitumen would be even more impossible to clean up because it sinks. No technology currently exists that successfully cleans up bitumen spills in oceanic environments.