By now we’ve all had time to recover from a judgment only slightly more shocking than the sun’s decision to rise this morning: the National Energy Board giving their somewhat rubbery stamp to Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline expansion last week
The expansion will be debated in the federal cabinet and the courts, with First Nations’ legal rights being pitted against the pipeline’s economic benefits.
Of course, all the benefits in the world will sink like bitumen in freshwater if a tanker ruptures and black gold spreads across our coastline.
Response crews won’t work in a hurricane, and even in ideal circumstances they could take six hours to get booms in the water.
For anyone who treasures Maplewood Flats, six hours sounds like an eternity.
There are a host of other interesting numbers associated with the project: 157 conditions, 890,000 barrels per day, 981 kilometres of pipe, 34 tankers a month and about 5,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
But perhaps the most important number is $6.8 billion. That’s how much Kinder Morgan will likely pay to augment their pipeline.
It’s a colossal investment as well as a gauntlet. If Kinder Morgan is eager to invest nearly $7 billion, how much are they expecting to profit?
Ironically, $7 billion is also the sum Ontario’s government recently announced they’d be spending to combat climate change.
We submit that someone is investing their money wisely and someone is throwing their money away. It’s up to all of us to determine which is which.
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