Pipeline would ship oil and jobs south
Published On Sun Aug 08 2010
Dave Coles President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union
An unlikely coalition of Calgary oil workers, Nebraska farmers, Michigan mothers, Greenpeace shock troops and a powerful U.S. congressman have a chance to achieve what many thought impossible — bring a Canada-U.S. oil pipeline project to a screeching halt.
The pipeline they are trying to stop is a 9,600-kilometre monster designed to ferry black bitumen from the Canadian tarsands due south to planned refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.
The battle to stop the pipeline is being fought on two fronts — in defence of jobs and the environment.
So far, the environment has been making headlines. The catastrophic runaway oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico drew dramatic attention to the colossal cost of pumping oil. On top of that, Enbridge Inc., the Canadian company hoping to cash in on another pipeline project, suffered a blow to its prospects when a 60-year-old pipeline cracked open in Michigan, pouring Canadian oil into a 65-kilometre stretch of the Kalamazoo River.
The more dramatic environmental card being played is the tarsands themselves. So far, the huge dirty tarsands footprint has had little play in the American media. They have been focused on the massive amounts of oil buried in the sands, oil the U.S. desperately needs as Middle East reserves become depleted. But now politicians ignore the environment at their peril, especially with mid-term elections approaching.
Enter Democratic Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the powerful congressional committee on energy and commerce. Waxman is demanding the state department exercise its international powers to ice the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. He pointed to the vast amounts of good water and natural gas needed to extract oil from the oilsands. “We’re adding to the carbon pollution for the globe,” he told U.S. National Public Radio, “and we’re making a multi-million-dollar investment to expand our reliance on the dirtiest source of transportation fuel currently available. I think that’s a step in the wrong direction.”
The “multi-million-dollar investment” Waxman referred to touches on the second operation to stop the pipeline. It’s all about what may be the most powerful four-letter word in the English language: jobs.
The thousands of kilometres of new pipeline being proposed reveal a radical restructuring of the way oil and gas are being delivered on this continent. For Canadians, the consequences have been crushing.
Rammed through despite serious opposition, the first Keystone, built by TransCanada Corp., cost Canada thousands of jobs. An analysis by the Informetrica think-tank demonstrated that besides exporting 400,000 barrels of heavy crude a day, it also shipped out 18,000 high-paying Canadian jobs. Twice the size of TransCanada’s first Keystone is the new project, Keystone XL. It will shoot out 900,000 barrels of heavy crude in a one-way ride to the U.S. The number of jobs lost is expected to be more than double the 18,000 already gone.
These pipelines are sending our raw, unprocessed bitumen from Canadian tarsands to spanking new oil refineries in the U.S. It is the equivalent of shipping millions of raw logs for others to cut the two-by-fours and create the wood furniture. Like forestry, the best jobs are in processing. We are left with the tarsands’ massive mess. The Americans get the good jobs.
In May, the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers union, which has some 35,000 members in the oil industry, appealed a National Energy Board decision to green light the project. The union presented a compelling case to the Federal Court. We argued that it is in Canada’s best interest to stop Keystone XL, and keep the good jobs at home. We need to process the oil in Alberta, and points east, using various upgrader and refinery projects, out west and in Ontario.
That means we need infrastructure to connect eastern Canada to western supply.
Canada’s energy security is scarcely mentioned in NEB deliberations anymore. But it should be. Canada is locked into a staggeringly lopsided deal with the U.S. under NAFTA. Whatever volume of oil Canada ships south can never be cut back. No matter how desperate our needs might become, we are trumped by Brian Mulroney’s gift that keeps on giving — to his American friends.
Once the National Energy Board had a sterling reputation for even-handed rulings that seemed to take into account Canadian national interest. No longer. In the U.S. under George W. Bush, regulatory agencies were packed with mmbers of the special interest groups that they were supposed to police. This now also is the case with the National Energy Board. It came as no surprise that the NEB swept aside the union’s case, and rubber-stamped the pipeline.
But now, thanks to the alliance between Canadian workers and American farmers and environmentalists, the Keystone XL pipeline may be halted through action by U.S. regulators. The U.S. state department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seem to be listening. U.S. regulators have asked for a delay while they take a closer look at the project.
They are asking exactly the right questions about whether the Keystone XL pipeline is in the best interests of the U.S. Stopping it serves Canada’s best interests, too.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/845018--pipeline...
