Editor’s note: This letter was sent to MP Pamela Goldsmith-Jones and copied to The Chief
I voted for you and the Liberal party in 2015 because of the promises to invest in green energy, alternative technology, and the environment made by Justin Trudeau. Instead, the federal government approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline to ship toxic diluted bitumen by Aframax tankers from our coast through the narrow Strait of Juan de Fuca filled to 80 per cent due to the geographic limitations of that traverse, with 550,000 barrels of bitumen, according to DeSmog Canada.
There is scant information on exactly who will buy these shiploads of bitumen as compared to conventional crude, “bitumen contains 102 times more copper, 21 times more vanadium, 11 times more sulphur, 11 times more nickel, six times more nitrogen, and five times more lead. It also has a much lower ratio of hydrogen to carbon, which significantly reduces its combustion efficiency, “ according to theenergymix.com/2018/04/10exclusive-outside-the-bitumen-bubble/
The excess of carbon in bitumen, and the levels of sulphur, nitrogen, and heavy metal contaminants means that these pollutants are often dispersed by oil industry processing, not destroyed. So it is not
surprising that no bitumen refineries were ever been permitted to process it in Canada.
And now we learn that Justin Trudeau is negotiating with Kinder Morgan to subsidize the pipeline with tax money — all to transport a product that sells at a serious discount to crude products and can only be refined in jurisdictions with lax environmental and air quality standards.
And what happened to Trudeau’s promises to adhere to the Paris Climate Accord and reduce emissions? Instead, we learn that Canada’s emissions have risen 50 per cent in the last 18 months and will now be 66 megatons above our targets for 2030 according to a recent report to the UN.
That is not something I voted for when I helped elect you in 2015. Please stop this nonsense, especially considering how much work still has to be done to develop our nascent green energy industries and technologies essential to Canada joining the vibrant green energy revolution sweeping the globe.
Matt Blackman, Squamish Alternative Energy Group
