Kinder Morgan (the pipeline people who want to bring fresh tar to our beaches) is getting impatient with us. They have stomped their feet and they want their lickspittle to do as instructed. “Make it so, number one!” Justin is inclined to obey, of course, but BC has put up an objection and that challenge is taking time. First Nations are resisting, too. That also takes time. Kinder Morgan doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Time is money. They are calling the bluff on the Feds. “Do it! Or we may take our diggers and go home!”
For the most part, I am in favour of Horgan, First Nations and the BC government. The pipeline is a complete sellout to corporate interests, threatens the environment and does nothing to help Canadians. NOTHING! Resistance by BC and any thinking human being is obligatory. They are doing what they said they would do and it is the right thing to do.
But they will lose.
The Federal government has jurisdiction and, where they don’t, they can legislate to get it. Worse, the Feds have to fight Horgan because of NAFTA and the privileges and rights we gave away years ago to the Americans. The US corporate-state may not own us, but they pretty much ‘lease us’ and, in British Common law, leasing gives a lot of ‘ownership’ power. Kinder Morgan will threaten and sue Canada to get the money they would have had to otherwise work for with the pipeline if they don’t get what they want.
We lose giving in and we will lose fighting them.
The answer, of course, is in finding a resolution some other way….refining the sludge to an evaporative product would solve all of the problems but the major one – climate change exacerbation. More greenhouse gases. But that would at the very least not add sludge and tar to the Salish Sea.
Small consolation.
Plus – the Chinese do not want to pay for value-added product. They want their sludge at the lower price. You know, like they just want raw logs and not lumber or finished product?
Bottom line: the drama queen is between a rock and a tar-baby. He will cave to corporate interests. Either way, lots of lawyers will make a lot of money. Within a decade or two we will learn of tankers colliding in English Bay or Coal Harbour or pipelines rupturing into Burrard Inlet or some BC river. And all sorts of oily hell will break loose. There will be calls for a Royal Commission and we will all grieve and lament the death of the Gulf of Georgia, salmon streams, beaches and great swathes of forest. Plucky kids will be photographed cleaning sea birds on the beach. Our planet will be one giant step closer to dying. And Texas shareholders in Kinder Morgan will be discussing public relations.
John-in-Alberta-types (I do not know the real John. My reader may be a non-smoking, anti-gun, teetotal for all I know) will be paying $10.00 a liter for his old, rusting Silverado and cursing the socialists and tree-huggers. He will champion the oil companies. He will vote Conservative. He will use his Employment Insurance cheque to buy more cigarettes, booze and bullets. He’ll watch hockey. And he will also curse Trudeau. That’s the Canadian way.
Kinder Morgan quitting?
Don’t kid yourself. If it isn’t this way, it will be another. That is what they do.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Wow! Another ill- informed diatribe. How about facts rather than opinions.
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Thanks, John. Glad you are back. I used your name to illustrate the Albertan view but I do not know yours. Maybe you are against KM. Maybe you love the ocean. Maybe no guns. No Silverado. I just needed a stereotype. Apologies.
Kinda. But, as for the facts……when has that mattered to you?
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Currently the pipeline moving oil to Burnaby is over sixty years old. In the fullness of time it will fail. America is wanting to drill more wells off California and if they succeed the West Coast might be getting its oil by tanker. A steady stream of tankers will make Kinder Morgan obsolete. Currently Canada is headed towards a constitutional crises though most do not see this on the horizon but it is eminent. In the nineteen century whales were hunted for their oil and the hunt can be resumed. Whale oil is a sustainable resource and perhaps salmon farms can be eliminated and BC could farm whales. It’s worth noting that when all forms of transport are electrified these vehicles will require lubricants but thankfully the wheels of industry can be greased with whale grease or pig lard or rendered animals of all types, including the fat cats of industry. With apologies to Jonathan Swift.
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Not sure you apologized enough!
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Ironically Swift’s essay, “ A Modest Proposal” to end hunger among the Irish in the 18th century was taken as literally true although meant as a satire.
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….and Bahrain’s announcement of the discovery of 80 billion barrels of “locked”( shale) oil and even more natural gas off their coast just nuked any hope that Canada’s tar sands will ever be economically viable…….
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiE89nVlK7aAhUC44MKHbGOCQIQFgg0MAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbusiness.financialpost.com%2Fcommodities%2Fenergy%2Fupdate-2-bahrain-says-new-discovery-contains-an-estimated-80-bln-barrels-of-tight-oil&usg=AOvVaw12eJUZS68PXootp7Kcg7PP
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Well, Trump was intended as satire and is literally true. Trudeau came in as satire and is literally true. Both are also farce.
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Looks like there will be deal on NAFTA, confirming Canada’s hinterland status as a major exploiter of natural resources: water, timber, petroleum, hydro, fish, grains, minerals and a modest manufacturing sector. Big picture Canada is destructive to the environment.
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And THAT is the deal: we are the third world colony to the great US of A.
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We are their hinterland and we have the standard of living to prove it.
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Same old. Same old. It really is depressing. It appears nothing is worth protecting. One of my favourite movies is Soylent Green. It is something we can aspire to. Not long to go. Aren’t I cheery!
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Canned recycled humans (Soylent green) is a closed loop. Unsustainable. The star of that movie was the spokesman for the NRA for a long time, Charlton Heston. Michael ‘Flint’ Moore badgered him into an interview when he was stricken with Alzheimer’s. Ugly, ugly….everywhere you looked.
And we seem to be getting uglier.
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No hope then. I wonder whether there is a causation between the NRA (or extreme right) and Alzheimer’s?
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Seems there’s a correlation that ibuprofen helps with….? But I forget the rest…..
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Haha. You knew I was joking, right?
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With early on set it’s not just the loss of memory affecting functioning but executive functioning deteriorates and decision making becomes irrational and delusional with the rise in paranoid thoughts. ‘The deep state,’ ‘obsessions about bad deals,’ ‘truthtelling becomes inconvenient’ ‘Starting trade wars,’ becoming an aggressive bully. Making those caring for such an individual fearful and sad.
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Interesting leap……you suggesting he is not just ignorant but also mentally ill at a biological level?
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May well be. Fits of temper. Like a child sends people away or sends them home. Grandiose thinking, selective thinking, punitive , moody, lacking in self consciousness. Spoiled.
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