By DOUG WARD, Vancouver Sun October 11, 2011
B.C. gets risks, few benefits: NDP MP
VANCOUVER - Only 31 per cent of British Columbians support the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which carries crude oil from northern Alberta to a terminal in Burnaby, according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by the Mustel Group and financed out of the office budget of Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Kennedy Stewart, also found that 35 per cent of respondents support keeping the existing single oil pipeline. Eleven per cent of respondents favoured removing all Trans Mountain oil pipeline infrastructure and 22 per cent didn’t have an opinion.
“What seems to be front and centre in people’s minds is that we seem to be taking all the risks without getting any of the benefits,” said Stewart.
The newly elected MP, one of the NDP’s natural resources critics for Western Canada, said that the twinning of the pipeline will increase the risk of an oil spill on the south coast “because you will have more oil tankers and larger ones too.”
The project — which is being driven by demand from Asia and the U.S. — won’t result in new refinery jobs in B.C. or new royalties for the provincial government, just temporary construction jobs, added Stewart. The pipeline carries gasoline and other refined petroleum products in addition to crude oil.
About 315 kilometres of the 1,150-km-long pipeline have already been twinned. The National Energy Board has regulatory oversight of the twinning, but Kinder Morgan owns the pipeline right-of-way to the coast. That means the federal cabinet could waive regulatory requirements and allow the expansion to proceed, Stewart said.
The MP said concerns over the expansion partly stem from an oil spill in 2007, in which a Kinder Morgan pipeline leak showered a Burnaby neighbourhood with crude oil. The spill damaged 11 homes and forced 250 people out of the area.
The Mustel poll of 500 British Columbians is considered accurate to within plus or minus 4.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The poll was taken between Sept. 12 and 25.
Kinder Morgan wants to incrementally double the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline from the current 300,000 barrels per day to 700,000 barrels per day from Edmonton to its Westridge Terminal in Burnaby, on the south shore of Burrard Inlet. From there, oil is loaded onto ships and sent to destinations including China, South Korea and California.
Kinder Morgan plans to eventually build another ship berth at Westridge.
On its website, the company states: “New pipeline capacity will be required in the next 10 years to transport growing volumes of product from Alberta and to replace declining U.S. reserves. Recent studies have concluded that emerging West Coast and Asia-Pacific markets provide an opportunity for Canada to become a significant contributor in these markets.”
The Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion plan recently prompted the Union of B.C. Municipalities to pass an emergency resolution calling for greater local scrutiny of the project.
The resolution urged the National Energy Board (NEB), Port Metro Vancouver and “all appropriate” federal ministers to ensure any application to expand the pipeline’s capacity be subject to the “highest degree” of environmental assessment.
Environmental groups have warned that any mishap with an oil tanker on the south coast could result in serious damage to the marine environment and affect the way of life of coastal communities.
dward@vancouversun.com
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