Revenge of the comment section: Everyone's upset about pipelines
This might get worse before it gets better
This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the approval of two pipelines and a rejection of the third, the Northern Gateway. The news has commenters debating the impact the Line 3 and Trans Mountain pipelines — and the absence of Northern Gateway — will have on the economy and the environment. Few seem very happy.
Nothing but a pipe dream
Trudeau needed to do something right for a change. But this pipeline is nothing but a pipe dream. It won't happen. As soon as they start working on it, the anti-oil-activists will be out there protesting, which they are probably already doing. Then everything will come to a roaring halt. Look what happened in Montreal for Energy East not too long ago. The crybabies were out there crying a river. That was the end of it. This will be ugly.
- Brenda Bennett VanRootselaar
Stop the flow
It isn't just the First Nations peoples who have a strong problem with this. You don't have social license from anyone in B.C. We have been betrayed by the Liberals and I hope that they lose every seat in B.C. It turns out that the federal Liberals are the same as the provincial Liberals.
I'm a manager of a construction company and I will take time off to protest and stop the flow of goods and services across B.C. for as long as is needed; years if necessary, my lifetime if required.
Drill baby, drill
Let the games begin. Many Canadians voted Liberal in the last election because Trudeau led them to believe he wouldn't approve the pipelines that he criticized the previous government for supporting. Trudeau should have led off his press conference by saying "drill baby drill," because that's what his decision will result in. Not exactly what the environmentalists had in mind!
You don't have the votes
You gotta wonder what Trudeau was thinking. No one in Alberta was going to vote for him anyway. Pipeline or not, he won't get Alberta votes. But now he's angered almost everyone who would vote for him. He could have used the opportunity to shut down pipelines and force Alberta into the 21st century by giving massive funding for alternative energy projects instead. Thousands of jobs there, and he would have gotten support from everywhere in the country except Alberta, who won't vote for him anyway. All I can say is I hope he's got something figured out for what to do after he loses the next election.
Not if, but how
Both pipelines being approved are good for the province, and for the country. Anyone who doesn't see this is delusional and hypocritical. Oil sands production is already going to increase, so the question is not if the oil will be shipped but how. Pipelines are by far the safer option compared to rail.
Also oil is an inelastic product, with no substitute, so the idea that we can switch tomorrow to all renewable energy is far-fetched. With the projected growing demand for oil worldwide, whether you like it or not, we must ask ourselves: "Would you rather the oil come from Canada — a very green country with tremendous human rights and a world class reputation —or from a corrupt country that doesn't abide by even the simplest of human rights.
- Lee Ma
Nationalize all resources
Canada is an Arctic and subarctic country and needs all of its own fuel resources. Future generations will also need those resources and will probably be able to exploit them more efficiently and cleverly. Rushing to sell it all to China within this generation and risking the environmental disasters that the pipelines offer is simple greed and stupidity. Nationalize all of Canada's oil resources and use them to heat this cold country for the next few thousand years.
Economics over environment
I'm happy that Northern Gateway is off the table. That being said, there had to be compromise and if it's Kinder Morgan, then so be it. The twinning will follow an existing route to an existing terminal, so the damage has already been done there.
I don't like the fact that we are putting economics over environmental issues, but the reality is that oil will be mined and sold in Canada for years to come.