No doubt the point has been made often enough now that shipping crude oil from Alberta’s tar-sands through a long pipeline presents some serious ecological concerns. The environmentalists are aghast. They are bristling for a fight. They are determined to lay their bodies across the path of pipelines to the refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast or across the Rockies to the ocean port at Kitimat, B.C. The heavy crude the oil industry hopes to send through those pipelines contains serious carcinogens, pollutants and sure environmental destruction.
On the other side of the equation is the determination of Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet sycophants. They are not particularly concerned about the ravings of environmentalists or the aboriginals’ concern for the land. They see the revenues for crude oil only and seem to salivate over it. They are not going to allow anything to block their commitments to the oil-sands producers.
Neither side is allowing for a middle ground. The facts are that crude oil, particularly the heavy sulphuric crude from the Athabasca oil-sands, could cause catastrophic damage in ecologically sensitive land. And pipelines, working under constant pressure with heavy crude, can have failures. When there are breaks, it takes time to stop the flow. Clean-ups can become an impossible task.
But refined products from oil-sands crude are much easier to clean up. Partial or wholly refined oil can remove the carcinogens. Gasoline and diesel fuels will not mix with water. They can be separated. They will not easily leach into the water table. The risk factor to the environment is changed dramatically.
Not only is the risk factor changed but the pipeline specifications also change. Instead of a dual pipeline over the Rockies, a smaller diameter single pipeline can earn more money, carrying just half the volume with refined product.
While the oil industry has a long way to go to improve the processes for extracting oil from the tar sands, there are certainly less concerns about the environmental damage attributed to refineries. It would be most interesting to hear why the oil industry would want to resist this compromise. There has to be a point in the refining processes when the processed oil no longer presents the same environmental threat. That, we will leave to the people in the white lab coats. And just think, we could keep some skilled refinery jobs in Canada instead of exporting them.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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