Editor:
Jacob Knaus's letter "Oil income supports our lifestyle" advocates building pipelines to export Canadian petroleum to foreign markets and reduce our reliance on the U.S. He cites alleged projections of U.S. energy self-sufficiency by 2020. Without export pipelines, he argues, we face a bleak future: reduced exports, job losses, reduced government revenues and a declining standard of living.Unfortunately, his argument is founded on the false assumption that Americans soon won't require Canadian oil and gas.This is not so.
Reading various articles that muse about projected U.S. energy self-sufficiency, in both the fine and not so fine print, one notes that the U.S. energy planning incorporates Canadian petroleum resources and, more often than not, refer to North American energy self-sufficiency, that is, including Canada.
Energy planners correctly assume renewable energy - solar, wind, geothermal, etc. - will play an increasingly important part of the overall energy mix as will improved energy efficiency in transportation and building science.That said, dependence on petroleum, both for transportation and industrial feedstocks, will be with us for decades to come and Canadian workers and governments need not be pessimistic about our future.
What makes the most sense is to develop our own renewable energy technologies and domestic refining capacity to maximize employment, revenues and industrial capacity, including a land-based pipeline, across the geologically stable terrain east to supply Central and Eastern Canada with refined products, displacing currently imported crude. It should not include diluted bitumen pipelines west across B.C.'s rugged and often unstable landscape or supertankers along our beautiful but frequently treacherous coast.
That is why Sunshine Coasters will gather in Davis Bay on Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to say "No pipelines, no tankers, no way. Defend our coast!" Please join us and people in 85 communities around B.C. on this important day.
Jef Keighley, Halfmoon Bay
