dino_bobba_renno dino_bobba_renno:
And we've all ready been through this point as well. Personally as someone in the industry I would argue for the opposite which I realize sounds pretty counter intuitive.
And that's the challenge the industry faces. Despite overwhelming evidence that people are very concerned with environmental impacts of the oil sands and of oil transport and oil spills, the industry simply refuses to acknoweldge it. I've seen it before with clearcutting in BC in the 80s. Evenutally, the industry simply had to to fact the fact that the customer is always right and had to change the way they do business. Same with the oil industry.
$1:
If we could start replacing some of the older corroded lines we would lessen the chance of lines breaking to begin with. The problem is right now that companies can't get approval for twinning lines (or "looping" as we call it) due to the steeped environmental regulations that they are faced with. Most lines have a life span of about 20 years depending on the product they carry but most of the larger NEB regulated lines are far older than that.
I'm not sure what the system is like provincially in Alberta, but federally, the COservatvies have greatly reduced regualtory oversight on the environment, so I just don't buy that, sorry.
$1:
On the regulation side of things; I don't think we need any more environmental regulations, we all ready have way too many to deal with at the moment to the point where we can barely even build anything. The governments time would be better spent on looking at new regulations regarding the operation and maintenance of the existing and new lines. That is what's going to prevent line breaks. More smart pigging, more inhibitor usage, more stringent guidelines on when a company has to repair a line etc etc. Establishing a new more ridiculous buffer zone for Ferruginous Hawks or Leopard Frogs isn't going to do squat.
I think what the industry needs to do is turn down the PR machine. It's actually working against them right now. Those Northern Gateway commercials are pissing people off, because they know when they are being BS'd. They are sick of being handled by communications people who just relentlessly read from their press lines. Same thing applis to the federal government right now. You don't eliminate your oil spill team in Vancouver and then go boast that you have a "world'class" oil spill response regime. Last month, leaked memos from the province of BC showed their response managers were concerend that the feds had no real response plan in place.
CKA Super Elite 
CKA Uber 
