A protest rally against pipelines and tankers is being planned for Wednesday in Davis Bay.
No Pipelines! No Tankers! No Way! Defend Our Coast takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, when concerned citizens across 85 B.C. communities will come together in protest. The Coast event is along the stretch of Highway 101 from Bay Road to Davis Bay Road (approximately the same length as one of the super tankers, 480 metres long) as a way to say no to federal and provincial politicians. Alliance 4 Democracy - Sunshine Coast is organizing the event.
"The more British Columbians learn about the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat and the Kinder Morgan pipeline to Burnaby, the less they like them," said one of the protest organizers, Jef Keighley. "Both pipelines have to cross B.C.'s rugged and frequently unstable landscape to fill super tankers that would have to navigate our beautiful but often treacherous coastline.
"Both pipelines would transport diluted bitumen (dilbit) from Alberta's tar sands to tidewater for shipment overseas. The super tankers to service Kitimat, called Very Large Crude Carriers, are upwards of 480 metres long, have two-mile turning circles and take five miles to stop. Kinder Morgan envisions using somewhat smaller but still unwieldy Suezmax tankers up to 930 feet [285 metres] long."
He said current spill containment and cleanup technologies are useless in fast moving rivers and turbulent seas.
"Unlike conventional crude, which floats, bitumen is very thick and heavier than water and must be diluted with lighter petroleum products to be piped," he said. "The dilutent is highly toxic and begins to evaporate immediately following a spill, creating toxic clouds as the bitumen sinks below the surface and flows with the currents.
"Rather than export unprocessed product overseas at great environmental risk, we should encourage building domestic refining capacity to send the refined product to North American markets and create thousands of family supporting jobs in Canada. We should encourage the development of renewable energy technologies and improved energy efficiency in transportation and building science, creating yet more jobs.
"We should end massive subsidies for profitable fossil fuel producers. We should address global warming rather than fuel it. In short, we should use our wealth and our acumen to build an economy for the future."
For more, see www.alliance4democracy.ca.
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