Why push for crude to be exported?
By Letter to the Editor on February 24, 2018.
I sympathize with those in British Columbia who are opposed to an additional oil pipeline without sufficient environmental guarantees. The people who have the power to force the pipeline to be built are not the ones who will suffer the consequences of the inevitable oil spills. The bullying to which the latter are being subjected is another example of how poorly self-defence is regarded in Canadian law. A letter in the Feb. 9 News suggested that, instead of building a pipeline to export crude oil, Alberta should instead build its own refineries and thus could export a cleaner product. I wrote the same thing to Premier Rachel Notley some time ago and her reply indicated that Alberta already has considerably more refinery capacity than I realized. So, I wonder why it is so unthinkable to build more refineries instead of pushing for the export of more crude — and why necessarily by pipeline? Given the number of pipeline leakages which have occurred in recent years, I wonder if rail transport isn’t safer. Charmaine Wood Irvine, Alta. 8-7
Refineries are very expensive to construct and returns are not huge. There are many regulatory hurdles with this type of industry and nobody wants them in their area. There is too much oil produced and even if we could refine it all, pipelines are needed to ship the product as we can’t consume it all. Like lumber, we can build some houses here but still have to export the raw stuff. Rail has been studied and shown to be less safe. This mode of transportation is also limited in capacity and costs more. The number of pipeline leaks are small compared to the amount of pipelines in the ground.
Apparently tonio5 has bought into the Ralph Klein lie that refineries are too expensive to build , or no one wants them in their area. How do you explain the fact that there is a huge row of them between Edmonton and Sherwood Park and they aren’t a problem, or that there is a new one about to open in the Fort Saskatchewan area next month. Then there is the Irving Family of New Brunswick who built the biggest one in Canada and it’s made them the second richest family in Canada?
The fact is Klein and Stelmach should have listened to Peter Lougheed and built refineries instead of creating jobs for Americans, and Chinese that Canadians should have had. I agree with what a friend, who built pipelines, use to say. He didn’t think raw bitumen could be sent down pipelines safely without it scouring out the pipelines because it’s mainly sand. He passed away two years ago but this probably should be addressed, and it likely has been.
Apparently tonio5 has bought into the Ralph Klein lie that refineries are too expensive to build , or no one wants them in their area. How do you explain the fact that there is a huge row of them between Edmonton and Sherwood Park and they aren’t a problem, or that there is a new one about to open in the Fort Saskatchewan area next month. Then there is the Irving Family of New Brunswick who built the biggest one in Canada and it’s made them the second richest family in Canada?
The fact is Klein and Stelmach should have listened to Peter Lougheed and built refineries instead of creating jobs for Americans, and Chinese that Canadians should have had. I agree with what a friend, who built pipelines, use to say. He didn’t think raw bitumen could be sent down pipelines safely without it scouring out the pipelines because it’s mainly sand. He passed away two years ago but this probably should be addressed, and it likely has been.
FuC, I never realized refineries are not expensive to build. Who would have known. New refineries could not all be built in Fort Sk due to various limitations of setbacks, air quality, and yes, people in the area don’t want more. Yes there is the Irving refinery but Energy East is dead. If oil in the pipeline is mainly sand, why are they not failing everywhere due to this issue? As usual, you’re back to your idol Ralph in every comment.
@tonio5 The fact is we have been shipping crude oil , not raw bitumen, and it’s not scouring out pipelines like the raw bitumen might. You may not have heard it yet but Notley announced yesterday the building of five new up-graders to change the consistency of raw bitumen to make it safer to ship down pipelines, which is what we have been hoping to hear.
If you don’t like hearing about what your hero Ralph Klein did to this province , maybe you should stop reading what I write. I had known the guy in the 1960s and knew what a jerk he was, and he almost killed my father with his massive health care cuts, so how would you feel? When lawyers, accountants, oilmen and former MLAs were telling us that if he hadn’t slashed royalties and taxes to benefit his rich friends none of the massive budget cuts would have been necessary.
When Klein was campaigning to become premier his mother Flo told my mother that she didn’t think he was capable of running this province properly. Mum told her we shared her concerns and no one in her family had any intention of supporting him. Flo wasn’t surprised. Then his father Phil began voicing his concerns, here in Edmonton. He was furious with what his son was doing to this province. Then before the last election Klein’s own daughter Angie urged Albertans to vote for the NDP knowing what had happened to this province. Even Klein’s own family was a lot smarter than the people who supported him.
In 2003 Don Getty told me that inviting Liberal Ralph Klein into the conservative party was the dumbest thing he ever did and I certainly agreed with him. And when Klein retired Lougheed stated that he had left us in a “Horrific Mess”, and Ed Stelmach pointed out that while he was paying off the $23 billion debt he inherited from Getty he created a $42 Billion infrastructure debt, which the NDP is addressing while these Reformers attack her for taking us further into debt, She has no choice
As any true conservative knows we are in this financial mess because of Klein and that’s why so many conservatives voted in the NDP, it had to be stopped.