Enbridge Northern Gateway Project

[Rwede]

A couple of gems from the website:

"34 signers. Let's reach 250,000"

Give 'er! 34 nitwits can't be wrong!

"To get to Kitimat and then leave from there, the tankers would need to go through rough waters along the BC coastline, which would take them through the Great Bear Rainforest."

Uhh, the tankers sail through the forest? Right.

An oil spill would have devastating effects on the region and its native species. One species of note is the Kermode or "Spirit" Bear (a genetically unique, white sub-species of the Black Bear).

No, it's a recessive gene that all of BC's 350,000 + black bears carry.

Given the narrow marine channels, huge Pacific storms and the risk of Tsunamis in the homeland of the Spirit Bear, an oil spill far greater than the Exxon-Valdez, would be inevitable and devastate the fragile marine ecosystems for many years too come, including salmon and other marine life that the bears depend on.

Inevitable? Pure fear-mongering. Yep, let's play on Tsunamis, since they are in the news and should pry your wallet open. "Too come" - the proofreaders were too busy passing the bong to catch it.

Members of Stephen Harper's Government have branded those opposed to the pipeline as "foreign radicals", including Environmental groups, First Nations and the many other Canadians who oppose the pipeline.

Seeing whom they are attracting with their petition, Mr Harper is bang on in his assessment of foreigners trying to tell Canada what to do.

Recent Signers
5 minutes agoangelic salha, Saudi Arabia
40 minutes agoM. Bautista, United States of America
52 minutes agoDanielle Snow, Canada
58 minutes agoWilliam Oates, Canada
one hour agoirene allori, Italy

[jm32]

That would actually be 69 signers now.

[ForestfortheTrees]

"To get to Kitimat and then leave from there, the tankers would need to go through rough waters along the BC coastline, which would take them through the Great Bear Rainforest."

Uhh, the tankers sail through the forest? Right.

Yep, I think it can be safely argued that the tankers do sail right through the rainforest. The ecosystem of the rain forest is directly tied to the marine environment. There is a huge exchange of nutritents between the two areas, and wildlife depends on food from both locations.

An oil spill would have devastating effects on the region and its native species. One species of note is the Kermode or "Spirit" Bear (a genetically unique, white sub-species of the Black Bear).

No, it's a recessive gene that all of BC's 350,000 + black bears carry.

Checkout this paper from UBC.
http://www.genetics.forestry.ubc.ca/ritland/reprints/2002_ME_Marshall_KermodeVariation.pdf
To quote from the article my emphasis:

The white-phase pelage of the North American black bear is one of the most striking examples of a conspicuous morphological polymorphism occurring in nature. . . . Kermode populations represent a component of the coastal lineage of black bears whose current distribution may describe part of a glacial refugium. The presence of the white-phase bear in appreciable frequencies in this region can be attributed to restricted population size and isolation in insular habitat relative to mainland populations,
in combination with a fragile population structure and possible selection pressure on the coat-colour locus associated with the white phase.

Given the narrow marine channels, huge Pacific storms and the risk of Tsunamis in the homeland of the Spirit Bear, an oil spill far greater than the Exxon-Valdez, would be inevitable and devastate the fragile marine ecosystems for many years too come, including salmon and other marine life that the bears depend on.

Inevitable? Pure fear-mongering. Yep, let's play on Tsunamis, since they are in the news and should pry your wallet open. "Too come" - the proofreaders were too busy passing the bong to catch it.

The presence of the pipeline will increase tanker traffic in the region by around 220 tankers per year. These will not be small tankers, but range in size up to the biggest super tankers. Capable of holding many times the capacity of the Exxon Valdez. Another important thing to remember is that these are not Canadian ships or those controlled by Enbridge. They will be ships from foreign countries, under foreign flags. There are a number of locations to collect data on marine incidents, and their probability of occurrence. So to suggest this is "pure fear-mongering" is clearly incorrect. It is highly likely that over the life of the pipeline, there will be some kind of an incident.

Members of Stephen Harper's Government have branded those opposed to the pipeline as "foreign radicals", including Environmental groups, First Nations and the many other Canadians who oppose the pipeline.

Seeing whom they are attracting with their petition, Mr Harper is bang on in his assessment of foreigners trying to tell Canada what to do.

And in a democracy, wasn't it a wonderful thing that our government did the day before hearing were to being for our democratic process. Rather than talking about the billions of foreign investment, and ownership tar sands companies by the Chinese government, they focused on foreign "radical" diverting the process. Well, I am part of the process, a Canadian Citizen, and I am doing it purely out of my love for the province I live in.

So Richard, Enbridge's own website suggests only 500 odd, long term jobs after construction is completed. Not that many really. Now consider the number of jobs that are currently in the area through fishing and tourism, and those that rely on an in-tact ecosystem for their livelihood. When there is some kind of incident, whether along the pipeline or at sea, who will replace those jobs that are lost? Who will repair the ecosystems that provide more to us than we understand? So who is the nitwit?

[jm32]

FFTT - Thank you.

[ForestfortheTrees]

Here is a video of a testimony given at the hearings in Prince Rupert. It is an impassioned speech against the pipeline and imploring us, as a new generation, to look for other options. The cheers he received when he concluded suggest wide support in Prince Rupert. http://youtu.be/1X3VynNZQaQ

It also made it to the Huffington Post. Here is their coverage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/lee-brain-northern-gateway-pipeline_n_1295061.html

[sooperphreek]

i dont care about his speech. the financial needs of a viable nation outweigh the wants of a few environ-mentalists. this will happen with the full weight of the canadian, bc, and albertan governments beheind this - and boohooing about it is a waste of time. there may be miniscule victories in battles along the way to give you hope but the war will be won eventually by the proponents of the pipeline.

[NAB]

SMITHERS, B.C. - The northwestern B.C. town of Smithers, B.C., has joined two cities and one regional district in rejecting the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Councillors representing the Bulkley Valley community of nearly 6,000 voted Tuesday night to oppose plans by Enbridge Inc. (TSX-ENB) to pipe Alberta crude across northern B.C. to Kitimat for shipment by supertanker to Asia.

Smithers, Terrace, Prince Rupert and the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District fear the potential of a devastating spill if the pipeline ruptures or supertankers run aground in the challenging waters of the north coast.

Prince Rupert council voted against the massive project on Monday night, following the lead set by Terrace two weeks earlier, and prompting Smithers councillor Phil Brienesse (brih-NESS’-ee) to re-introduce his motion of opposition after it was tabled month.

Brienesse says the Tuesday night outcome brings the north together, showing the region is united against Northern Gateway.

Read more: http://www.globalnews.ca/health/canada/ ... story.html

[Static]

The fact of the matter is the pipeline will be built, no matter what, at the expense of the customer, which happens to be the working class. Every protest is a price hike for those who rely on oil..

[ForestfortheTrees]

Smithers, Terrace, Prince Rupert and the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District have all officially rejected the Northern Gateway Pipeline.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012/02/29/19442806.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/29/northern-gateway-pipeline-smithers_n_1310502.html

The large majority of testimonies given at the hearings have also been anti-pipeline.
https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/ll-eng/livelink.exe?func=ll&objId=628981&objAction=browse&sort=name&redirect=3

First nations have also signed declarations opposing the pipeline
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/no-tankers/downloadable-files/cfn-declaration-with-release-and-backgrounder
http://yinkadene.ca/index.php/media/oil_sands_export_ban_bc_first_nations_unite_to_declare_province_wide_opposi

So, if this is the case and--as everyone suggests--the pipeline goes through anyway, what does this say about our country and the democratic process? The interests of the economy and those that do not live in the area trumps the interests and wants of the local residents? It really does expose these federally mandated processes as a sham. Your thoughts...

[Static]

Its called "finding a new route".

[Glacier]

How about re-routing the pipeline to Stewart? Or Bella Coola? or Wrangell, Alaska?

[Static]

How about re-routing the pipeline to Stewart? Or Bella Coola? or Wrangell, Alaska?

Exactly. It is going to happen one way or another. (No pun intended :dyinglaughing: )

Disclosure: I am an Enbridge shareholder :discodance:

[ForestfortheTrees]

The fact of the matter is the pipeline will be built, no matter what, at the expense of the customer, which happens to be the working class. Every protest is a price hike for those who rely on oil..

And when there is an incident somewhere along the pipeline, it will be the working class and taxpayer that is impacted the most.

[ForestfortheTrees]

How about re-routing the pipeline to Stewart? Or Bella Coola? or Wrangell, Alaska?

Exactly. It is going to happen one way or another. (No pun intended :dyinglaughing: )

Disclosure: I am an Enbridge shareholder :discodance:

And therein lies the problem: Individuals with a financial interest don't care what locals have to say, they only seem to care about what is profitable for them. Shareholders don't have to live where the issues are.

[Static]

The fact of the matter is the pipeline will be built, no matter what, at the expense of the customer, which happens to be the working class. Every protest is a price hike for those who rely on oil..

And when there is an incident somewhere along the pipeline, it will be the working class and taxpayer that is impacted the most.

Actually the shareholder will be the ones hit. Yes, the environment too. But there is enough history to provide evidence that the positives from such endevours outweigh the negatives.