Bill Nye the Science Guy throws Kinder Morgan questions at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

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      America’s favourite science enthusiast challenged Canada’s prime minister on oil pipelines last night (March 5).

      At an event in Ottawa, Bill Nye the Science Guy shared a stage with Justin Trudeau where he threw the prime minister a couple of questions on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project.

      "I've gotten a lot of messages from my colleagues in the environmental community, and I have been to Fort McMurray, Alberta. It really is an amazing place in the most troubling way," Nye began, according to a report by CTV News. "But this pipeline.

      “If you don’t mind, tell my colleagues in the States, tell us about the Kinder Morgan pipeline,” he said.

      Nye went on to emphasize the potential for clean-energy developments in Canada, such as wind in the Prairies.

      Trudeau responded with a lengthy explanation that acknowledged that a transition to cleaner sources of energy has begun. But he argued that projects like the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion are necessary because, Trudeau said, “we're not going to get there tomorrow”.

      According to the CTV report, Nye directed audiences to something called the Solutions Project, an organization that encourages realistic paths for cities to transition to 100-percent renewable sources of energy.

      The Kinder Morgan expansion project involves twinning a Kinder Morgan pipeline that runs from Edmonton—where it receives diluted bitumen from the Alberta tarsands—to a port in Burnaby.

      Upon completion, it will triple the amount of bitumen transported to the Lower Mainland, increasing the number of oil tankers moving through Burrard Inlet from some 60 ships per year to more than 400.

      Trudeau’s government gave the pipeline expansion federal approval in November 2016.

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