Don’t be shocked when Trudeau OK’s pipeline

“I am, however, very interested in the Kinder Morgan pipeline …. I certainly hope that we’re going to be able to get that pipeline approved.” — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, January 2014

Article by Bill Tieleman

Environmentalists, Metro Vancouver mayors, First Nations, New Democrat MPs and other oil pipeline opponents are going to get a Kinder Morgan surprise for Christmas — when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approves the Trans Mountain pipeline project this December.

Many will be shocked and appalled. But a more dispassionate look at the proposal to twin the existing pipeline — tripling its capacity to 890,000 barrels of oil a day shipped to Burnaby and out of the port of Vancouver — shows it will definitely proceed.

The reasons are many — the rationale clear. The only question is how well the federal Liberal government is able to communicate its decision and weather the storm of protest that is sure to follow.

Trudeau has long been supportive of Kinder Morgan.

But now, with Alberta reeling from the dramatic drop in oil prices — and the damaging impact that’s had on Canada’s economy — the Liberals are under more pressure to get that province’s oil sands bitumen to tidewater for sales to Asia.

And as the Liberals contemplate a $29.4-billion budget deficit this year and $118.6 billion over six years, any project that invests $6.8 billion, creates thousands of jobs, and helps get an important natural resource to markets at a better price can’t be rejected.

That message is loud and clear from Trudeau and his ministers.

“The choice between pipelines and wind turbines is a false one. We need both to reach our goal,” Trudeau said in Vancouver in March.

And federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr is equally blunt to those who listen.

“While it’s exciting to think about the clean energy, low-carbon economy of the future, we’re not there yet. Even in light of the Paris Agreement, even as the world continues the transition to renewable sources of energy, the demand for fossil fuels will actually increase for decades to come,” Carr said in August.

Environmentalists drinking champagne since Trudeau defeated the hated Stephen Harper Conservatives will get indigestion.

But given all the evidence, the Kinder Morgan decision really shouldn’t come as a big surprise.

Read more at vancouver.24hrs.ca