Green politicians voice opposition to Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion

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      Representatives of federal, provincial and municipal Green parties voiced their collective opposition today (September 12) to plans to twin the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby.

      “This proposal would dramatically increase the number of super tankers carrying bitumen diluent—it would expand the size of tankers leaving the port of Vancouver and we would end up with as many as 300 to 360 super tankers a year, trying to get out through the Second Narrows Bridge, under the railway bridge, and under Lion’s Gate Bridge,” said Elizabeth May, the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, at a news conference in downtown Vancouver.

      “These are areas with significant tidal influences," she added. "The precision of movement of these super tankers would have to be 100 percent perfect every day of the year for us to avoid a serious accident that could foul our waterways, our beaches and our shorelines from the Lower Mainland to the Gulf Islands."

      Kinder Morgan’s proposed $4.1-billion pipeline twinning project could see its capacity increased to 850,000 barrels per day from 300,000.

      Jane Sterk, the leader of the Green Party of B.C., argued there is a “great possibility that this will be passed by stealth”.

      She noted she expects the Kinder Morgan pipeline to play “a very big role” in the provincial election next spring.

      Green city councillor Adriane Carr urged the NDP and Liberals to rethink their position and what she called their "waffling stand” and speak out in opposition to Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion.

      Carr added that Vancouver cannot be “the greenest city and the export port for bitumen from the tarsands”.

      “I grew up playing on the beaches of Stanley Park, and I cannot bear the thought of those beaches being fouled by this tarry bitumen,” she said.

      Mayor Gregor Robertson has previously stated his opposition to the proposed pipeline expansion. The governing Vision Vancouver party has been gathering signatures on an online petition against the expansion of tanker traffic in the city.

      Kinder Morgan is expected to make its application for the expansion in late 2013.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      Chaitanya Kalevar

      Sep 15, 2012 at 6:47am

      Just like we have and will never have a container to hold the millions of tons of nuclear waste, we will never have pipelines safe enough to carry toxic oil for hundreds of KMs and not leak inspite of earthquakes, and other natural phenomena; not to mention human errors and destructive motivations that we can not escape from in our very unequal world.

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      C. Brown

      Sep 15, 2012 at 2:31pm

      "BC should regulate, produce and distribute marijuana to gain tax revenues" - Green Party of BC urges other political parties to legalize marijuana.

      With legalization politicians will increase lung cancer, and psychotic paranoia amongst citizens while collecting cash as a dope dealer.

      Why is it that the province with the highest number of marijuana users also has the highest number of people living in a psychotic state of fear about naturally occurring hydrocarbons existing on Earth since the beginning of time, and will continue to exist until the end of time?

      If the pipelines were full of a different THC than what is transported now would there be stoners trying to shut them down?

      What has caused pipeline opponents to be paranoid?

      "Paranoia is one of the most unpleasant ?side effects? of marijuana. It?s also a key experience shared by marijuana smokers and people with schizophrenia. But exactly how does smoking a joint cause the feeling that dark forces are conspiring to do you wrong?

      The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggest that activity in the basolateral amygdala is involved in marijuana-induced paranoia (the state of becoming afraid of things that wouldn?t normally trigger fear). That means marijuana is actually enhancing a type of learning about fear, leading the brain to jump to conclusions about mild experiences involving particular places or things, and to perceive them as scarier and more strongly connected than they are.

      This increased fear-based learning helps explain why stoners tend to see patterns in events that aren?t real, such as conspiracies. "

      Other examples of drug induced paranoia; Fear of drowning from annual millimeters increases of sea level, or scared to touch gooey organic oil or people would have to work for a living.

      Over 7 billion humans use organic hydrocarbons in one form or another daily; from babies chewing on soothers to elders wearing a hearing aid.

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      no name

      Sep 18, 2012 at 6:03pm

      What is the point of bring super oil tankers. all they do is bring the price of gas and taxes everyone so we don't get any jobs. Every nature and human being in the world does not like tankers, Its because they have a bad reputation of polluting are waters. If all of us make a protest and elections i bet we all would say no and put back the prince at 90 cent per letre.

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      hey_now

      Oct 14, 2012 at 10:27am

      "psychotic paranoia amongst citizens while collecting cash as a dope dealer."

      No: the govt can distribute, like cigarettes or Cuban cigars.

      There is no evidence that weed gives a person lung cancer. There is not been a single death on record anywhere from smoking marijuana.

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