Ignatieff suggests banning oil tankers along B.C. coast

Don't see this ever happening, we need the cash too much. Until something else comes along to take oil's place its still going to get priority.

hummm.... yeah sure. The oil tankers will go directly to Alberta. Nice thinking Ignatieff. Don't forget we live in a "coast to coast" country.

So what part of BC you guys from?
Iggy just gained from this announcement. Tankers to & from Kitimat is a goddam recipe for disaster.

Too late Iggy. We ghet about one tanker a day off the west coast of the Haida Gwaii/Vancouver Island (heading from Valdez to Washington State and California refineries). We have about one tanker a week coming into Vancouver Harbour, and occasional tankers beinging condesate into Kitimat. Vancouver Airport is proposing to bring tankers up teh Fraser River to provide teh airport with fuel.

Edit: Oh, I note that he is just proposing a ban on oil tankers in the North Coast. Condensate wouldn't count as "oil" probably. I should really read these articles before mouthing off!

I think it’s a sound idea.

Really, it’s pretty obvious that profit, not the environment is big oil’s major goal. They are in the business of making money.

We know that they will take ‘risks’ that they think they can manage. Stronger regulation of drilling and transportation of oil/gas is obviously needed and the time is ripe for us to join in with the Yanks in tightening up the regulation of this industry.

We need oil but we shouldn’t let CEO’s of oil companies run the show without government input.

you know I just dont get how Ontario residents can look at Alberta as an evil polutter. Where do they think the oil goes?

Last year, I had surgery in Mississauga Ontario, and based on the buzz of activity and traffic, I'd say that Ontario burns more than their fair share of fossil fuels.

They are certainly NOT on higher moral ground than Alberta.

The majority goes to the USA.

And I've never heard people here in Ontario speak poorly about Alberta in terms of pollution or anything. Don't judge the entire Province due to opinions from a few people.

That was Quebec in Copenhagen. I think most people in Ontario see that Alberta has a vital role in supplying energy the whole of Canada.

Unless we drastically reduce our use of oil, the pressure will be too great, and eventually we won't just be sending tankers down the coast but drilling too. Maybe the double dip recession everybody is predicting will reduce demand for a bit, but otherwise it's just going to go up and up the more prosperous Asia gets. And we in Canada and the US are the worst - we use 3 times the amount of oil that Europeans do. Maybe when we've shipped the last job to China we'll stop using oil here and get our 1st nations brothers to take us in and show us how to live in teepees and log houses.

There 'aint too many teepees and log cabins at 6 Nations. More like run down bungalows and smoke shops.

Sure we do. We have much greater distances to cover in our countries than do the Europeans and our populations are far less densely packed than are the populations of Europe. Calgary to Vancouver is only a tiny distance in Canada yet in Europe it's about the distance from Paris to Berlin.

Vancouver to St. John's is greater than the distance from London to Moscow. And the south of the UK within 200km of London has a greater population than all of Canada despite being located in an area smaller than Newf. & Lab.

There's just not a lot of comparison.

Sure we do. We have much greater distances to cover in our countries than do the Europeans and our populations are far less densely packed than are the populations of Europe. Calgary to Vancouver is only a tiny distance in Canada yet in Europe it's about the distance from Paris to Berlin.

Vancouver to St. John's is greater than the distance from London to Moscow. And the south of the UK within 200km of London has a greater population than all of Canada despite being located in an area smaller than Newf. & Lab.

There's just not a lot of comparison.

Sure, and Canada is colder too. But we're not exactly trying. We drive bigger cars, live in bigger houses and use less energy efficient equipment. Plus we have a more throwaway attitude vs the Europeans who buy quality and keep things longer. As long as oil was cheap, it didn't matter, but with the competition we're getting from Asia it won't stay cheap. And it will put pressure on us accessing all known oil reserves, even if it's environmentally hazardous - have to add the cost of something like the BP spill to the cost of oil. We could and should be trying harder to conserve.

Europe may not be leading by choice, imo, if they had the same choices as North Americans, they might be very similar to us.

Absolutely. They don't conserve more because they are more virtuous, but because energy costs them more. We may find ourselves being forced into virtue pretty quick too. But my main point is really about having to choose between using less or putting the environment at ever greater risk to get that oil. And at some point the environment is going to come back and present us with a bill anyway, as BP is finding out right now.