If Gerald Butts is the key apparatchik behind the rise of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, when he is going to butt in? As the former head of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Butts should know a thing or two about our environment. If he does, why has he not influenced Justin’s stand on Alberta bitumen and the pipelines needed to ship it overseas?
Butts has to know that the Alberta and federal governments are allowing the companies exploiting the Athabasca tar sands to destroy the fragile environment of northern Alberta. They are killing off the wildlife and effectively destroying the lands and traditional livelihoods of our aboriginal peoples.
But Justin Trudeau goes to the United States and tells people there that he wants to see the Keystone XL pipeline completed. He buys into the lie that it will supply the Texas Gulf Coast refineries with Canadian bitumen to turn into synthetic crude oil. He ignores the fact that it is really to put the bitumen onto tankers to send to countries that do not care about the pollution problems.
Luckily, with his family’s British Columbia roots, Justin has been thumbs down on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline. While already preapproved by the National Energy Board, this pipeline is waiting for a time when the Prime Minister’s Office feels Canadians might let it slip by.
The two proposed west to east pipelines are just as serious a problem. The reversal of Enbridge’s line through Toronto to Montreal has already been blessed by the Calgary-based National Energy Board. We still have no idea if that old a pipeline can be considered safe for high temperature bitumen to be forced through under greater pressure. That line could be used to send product to tanker loading ports in Saint John, New Brunswick or in Maine.
For TransCanada’s proposed Canada East pipeline, the Irving boys have offered to build a new oil loading dock in Saint John for bitumen. They seem to have no interest in changes to their refinery to pollute more with bitumen.
If Gerald Butts has not had a serious talk with his boss Justin Trudeau about, it is about time he did. If this bitumen gets out of hand and countries around the world start refining it, we will have more than our wildlife to save.
-30-
Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]