Transport Canada gives Enbridge nod for supertanker route
Wow, this is an impressively sanguine review. Above is the route that the federal government is claiming is ay-okay for supertanker traffic, past a whole lot of protected land through some very narrow and foggy passages. (Sorry for the terrible Google Maps screengrab; I’m on my antique netbook right now.)
Kitimat doesn’t have a proper harbour, so it’s not clear there would be any safe anchorages in 75 km/h winds (which are not super rare) - even with tugboats to stabilize the supertankers, which might not always be immediately available in a storm. Also, there are some very shallow points along the route, including one at 26 metres which is almost certainly too shallow for supertankers. And an oil spill would devastate huge areas of protected coastline and wipe out fisheries all along the North Coast. Ships have crashed on these routes in recent years using totally modern technology and best practices, because it’s effing hazardous.
I find it hard to believe that shovels will be hitting the ground any time soon; the project will almost certainly face vigourous opposition from the BC provincial government and basically every First Nations government along its route. Still, this is a pretty clear signal that the federal government is going to be willing to overlook virtually any environmental risk to keep oil pipelines running smoothly, because that’s basically the only thing Canada’s economy is good at anymore.
