Dear Editor:
Re: Ongoing reporting on the Kinder Morgan pipeline protests and lawsuits.
In reviewing our government and federal justice system’s decision to move forward with the Kinder Morgan pipeline, arguments in support of the project can be summarized as follows:
1. Alberta is going to make oil regardless of how they transport it. It’s profitable and it fits into their newly minted emissions cap.
2. Developing countries are going to continue using – and therefore, buying – fossil fuels. We might as well sell it to them.
This line of reasoning is outlined in Liberal MP for North Vancouver Jonathan Willkinson’s 2016 open letter pertaining to the issue, which addresses the mediation of environmental and political concerns and the ultimate approval of the pipeline.
However, there remain considerations that I feel have not been addressed.
Doesn’t selling fossil fuels to other countries make us culpable of profiting on the economical benefit of fossil fuels while passing the proverbial “hot potato” of emissions to some other country? It’s like we want to profit off of oil without getting our hands dirty. And by hands, I mean our precious international PR. Our continued production of oil, and other countries, drives international prices down, making renewable technologies more expensive for developing countries. Case in point: this is not about monopolizing oil; it is about subsidizing renewables. We must stop exporting fossil fuels, for we are feeding the market and stoking the fire.
Moving on to address the government’s justification of our continued exportation of oil ... they feel that demand for fossil fuels will increase in the coming decade. And so of course, Canada wants a slice of that pie. Or at least, Kinder Morgan does.
However, the arguments that, historically, first world countries have relied on fossil fuels to stabilize their economies, and that therefore fossil fuels are the only way to solve socioeconomic strife in developing countries, is fundamentally flawed. Renewables make much more sense for developing countries. After all, renewables are cheaper in the long term and they’re better for rural communities that are not connected to the energy grid. Ultimately we would benefit the world much more by becoming a leader in renewable energy export.
Anne-Marie Robinson, age 16
North Vancouver
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