Dear Kinder Morgan,
I want to give you a little advice.
Why do you care? Well, I鈥檓 one of the mushy middle-of-the-road folks you need onside if you鈥檙e going to triple the size of your pipeline running from the oil sands in Alberta to your Burnaby terminal.
You need people like me. I鈥檓 not going up to protest on Burnaby Mountain if you start working there again. Heck, I may not even sign a petition unless it鈥檚 shoved under my nose.
But that doesn鈥檛 mean I鈥檓 sympathetic to your cause.
In fact, I鈥檝e been cheering on the protesters because I see it as part of a big pushback that鈥檚 needed, and gathering steam.
That huge barrage of ads you鈥檝e put out in recent weeks isn鈥檛 going to sway me either. Yes, your employees in the ads look like people I鈥檇 like to share a beer with. And I think they deserve a job to feed their families.
And yes, I know they鈥檙e not sinister schemers trying to soak the ocean floors with undiluted bitumen or alter the atmosphere with oil burned somewhere in China.
And truth be known, I don鈥檛 even think Kinder Morgan鈥攐r any 鈥淏ig Oil鈥� companies for that matter鈥攊s inherently evil or bent on fouling the earth beyond repair.
I know they鈥檙e creating loads of high-paying jobs and helping to fill our national coffers at a time when, frankly, the economy is a basket case.
It鈥檚 hard to talk to too many people these days without bumping into someone who鈥檚 either worked in 鈥淔ort Mac鈥� or who knows someone that is.
Shut down the Alberta oil sands tomorrow, and there鈥檇 be a whopping fallout.
Meantime, along the Fraser River, it鈥檚 harder to make a case for the economic benefits of the they want to transfer from train to barge at Fraser Surrey Docks.
Many oppose this, too, but it hasn鈥檛 matched the protests on Burnaby Mountain.
On this issue, much of the opposition has focused on the local. The health impacts of coal dust wafting off trains. Train cars tipping into creeks, killing fish and wildlife, etc.
The big companies involved can deal with that kind of thing. They鈥檝e promised a bunch of mitigation initiatives.
But what makes the coal plan or the pipeline plan hard to stomach, for a mushy-middle guy like me, is that climate change is not addressed anywhere.
And really, Kinder Morgan, I don鈥檛 expect you to address climate change. As I鈥檓 sure you鈥檇 be the first to admit, that鈥檚 not your job.
But the lack of any plan鈥�that is your problem. It鈥檚 why I鈥檓 opposed to your plans. And, I suspect, why many people are.
Shipping coal for China to burn is just daft, plan or no plan.
But pipeline expansion, the Alberta oil sands, and many other carbon-intensive projects will face an increasing opposition if Canada doesn鈥檛 start making some smart steps toward a post-carbon future.
Meantime, climate talks are winding up in Lima, Peru this week. We鈥檝e already admitted we can鈥檛 meet the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets we agreed to years ago.
Me, I鈥檇 like to see a whole raft of smart, small steps.
Put a levy on the oil and gas industry that鈥檚 earmarked for incentive projects for a cleaner Canada.
Give me a $5,000 rebate to buy an electric car. A $1,000 rebate to put a geothermal system in my house. Give my region a couple billion dollars for another SkyTrain line (or two).
All I know is, I want to see action. I want to envision an (environmental) future I can be optimistic about.
So Kinder Morgan, I鈥檓 not sure what you can do.
Maybe you could give the folks in Ottawa a nudge.
Wake them up. Spur them to action.
Because until I see that, I might just add a bandana to my wardrobe.
And other mushy-middle folks might just do the same.
Sincerely,
A Constituent You Might Need
