West Seattle scene: From Burnaby Mountain to Harbor Island

| Environment | West Seattle news

Dozens of people gathered outside a Harbor Island office this afternoon to demonstrate in support of hundreds who are protesting almost 200 miles away, on Burnaby Mountain, east of Vancouver, B.C. The Harbor Island office belongs to Kinder Morgan, which wants to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby to carry tar-sands oil.

The expansion would bring hundreds more oil tankers into Northwest waters to receive that oil. While today’s Harbor Island rally was uneventful – though Port of Seattle police were visible nearby – the protest in Canada has resulted in dozens of arrests since Kinder Morgan obtained an injunction to prevent opponents from interfering with their preparatory work, which currently involves drilling. The pipeline-expansion decision is in the hands of Canada’s National Energy Board, which has an infopage about it here.)

Jim P. November 23, 2014 (7:06 pm)

One wonders how many of these protestors arrived and departed in petroleum fueled cars?

If so, do they think gasoline falls from the heavens directly into their cars’ tanks?

WSB November 23, 2014 (7:25 pm)

The Facebook event page included carpooling connections. And we noticed bicycles. Don’t know if that particular stub of 13th on Harbor Island has a bus running anywhere nearby.

pupsarebest November 23, 2014 (8:28 pm)

We are all slaves to, and victims of, our dependence on fossil fuel.
Total BS to ascribe hypocrisy to those who strive to change that unfortunate dynamic based on their use of ANY fossil fuel.

Earl Richards November 24, 2014 (2:39 am)

No toxic, tar sands for WA and BC. The tar sands have to be refined on the tar sands to create Canadian jobs for Canadians, to refine synthetic crude, to increase economic development and to prevent another Enridge, Kalamazoo River disaster from happening in the Salish Sea. Keep Washington and British Columbia beautiful.

WSRedux November 24, 2014 (9:19 am)

Extracting useable oil from tar sands is expensive & more environmentally toxic than pumping directly from wells. Not only must the bitumen-sand mixture be heated & chemically processed, but the overlying forest must be
stripped to open pit mine the sands. As we move to reduced dependence on fossil fuel we should rely on less toxic oil sources. See link:
http://oil-price.net/en/articles/are-canadian-tar-sands-profitable.php

Dale November 24, 2014 (10:54 am)

No refiners or upgraders of tar sands or heavy oil in Canada because it is terribly expensive. even more expensive in Canada given their labor shortage/costs. Easier to ship via Keystone Pipeline thousands of miles away. Currently, they are sending at a huge discount to WTI. The rate varies but it is not uncommon to discount the oil $15 a barrel for transportation alone. Trains are not the answer, long term. Since oil is falling in price recently it will no longer be economic to refine mine or heat these wells.

wakeflood November 24, 2014 (11:50 am)

Burning the nastiest, most polluting dirt on earth is shear folly to put it nicely.

The devastation left behind is both obvious and frightening to even the most environmentally disinterested.

This is yet another short term fix for a world that’s begging to move to better solutions, yesterday.

Stop pounding the last nails into the world’s coffin and start building forward-looking solutions. It’s happening all over the world but we’re too beholden to fossil fuel interests to change.

Future generations will judge us harshly for what we’re sowing. And they should. We’re doing it with our eyes and wallets open.

Sorry, comment time is over.