By Jes Abeita, Vancouver Sun August 28, 2010
Almost half of B.C. residents oppose two proposed pipeline projects and only one-third support them, a poll released Friday by Angus Reid indicates.
Forty-nine per cent of those polled agreed both projects were "a bad idea that could lead to environmental disaster."
The results probably reflect a series of bad-news stories recently for the energy industry, Angus Reid vice-president Mario Canseco said.
"We had the BP oil spill, we had the problem in Michigan, so the idea of something going wrong is right there, we're thinking about it constantly," Canseco said.
The BP spill into the Gulf of Mexico dominated the news for months. In July, a spill from an Enbridge pipeline dumped millions of gallons of crude oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River.
The two proposals covered in the poll are an Enbridge plan to build a pipeline between
Kitimat and Edmonton, and a Kinder Morgan plan to use an existing TransMountain pipeline between Edmonton and Metro Vancouver.
Support provincewide was 35 per cent for the Enbridge proposal, and 32 per cent for TransMountain's.
The Enbridge plan would see two pipelines built, one to carry crude oil from Edmonton to Kitimat and the other to carry natural gas condensate from Kitimat to Edmonton.
The Kinder Morgan proposal would see an expansion of the TransMountain Pipeline system to carry crude oil from Edmonton to the Lower Mainland.
The survey asked respondents for their opinions about the pipelines based on what they had "seen, heard or read," about the projects.
However, Canseco said the public has not been given enough information about spill-control mechanisms and about spill prevention.
"[The debate has] been about money and sending oil to China," he said.
Opposition to both projects stood at close to 50 per cent across the board. Resistance to Enbridge's twin pipeline proposal was strongest in northern B.C., with 56 per cent of those polled opposed to the project.
Support for both projects was strongest in the Greater Vancouver area, where 37 per cent said they supported the Enbridge plan and 35 per cent said they backed the Kinder Morgan proposal.
The Enbridge plan also drew 37 per cent support in the B.C. Interior.
Canseco said more information from the industry and governments about environmental safeguards and emergency planning for spills could help build support for the proposals. "There's got to be some sort of middle ground," he said.
The online survey of 804 B.C. adults omitted the names of the energy companies from the pipeline questions.
The survey also asked about the impact the carbon tax was having on B.C. households. More than half (56 per cent) said the tax had severely or moderately affected their household finances.
The poll found nearly three-quarters -- 74 per cent -- of those questioned said they didn't think the tax led people to be any more aware of their carbon consumption, nor did they believe the tax led people to change their behaviour.
The poll is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
jabeita@vancouversun.com
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