Kinder Morgan has been on the road lately offering money to communities who’ll support their pipeline project. They found no buyers in Sooke last night.
‘Go home! You’re not welcome in our town!’ was the unequivocal message delivered by a polite but passionate crowd in Sooke. Unlike the National Energy Board hearings, the public got to hear Kinder Morgan in person for the first time, and Kinder Morgan (KM) had to face the music. Michael Davies, Kinder Morgan’s Senior Director Marine Development, looked exhausted by 9 pm as he struggled to respond to our comments.
Michael Davies, Kinder Morgan’s Senior Director Marine Development,
Davies spent a good half an hour outlining Kinder Morgan’s plan to triple the capacity of its pipeline and increase its oil tankers from 5 to 34 a month, with at least 30% carrying diluted bitumen. He showed us a map of congested ship traffic through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, right past Sooke, and listed their marine safety enhancements. “We’re just the FEDEX of the oil and gas industry,” he explained. “And there will be 100 new jobs for spill response when we have a spill.” Note the word “when” not “if”. A slip of the tongue?
Sooke was promised 12 jobs and a warehouse, docks, and oil spill response equipment! No one was impressed.
Sooke Mayor, Maja Tait
Sooke Mayor, Maja Tait, reviewed the history of Sooke’s opposition to expanded tanker traffic, and then asked KM to comment on the recent Mayors Declaration calling for a halt to the NEB hearings and an independent BC environmental review. She also challenged him to explain why KM has not released its full oil spill response strategy as they’ve done in Washington state. Davies blamed the NEB and our federal/provincial governments. “There’s no provincial or federal requirement for posting of oil spill response plans,” he stated.