Dalhousie professor Larry Hughes says if plans for a west-to-east pipeline were to forge ahead, it would tie the region's energy supply to a 50-year investment that could mute environmental concerns.
[HALIFAX, NS] - The derailment in Quebec of a train carrying crude destined for the Irving Oil refinery in New Brunswick is raising questions about the security of Atlantic Canada's energy supply, with one expert saying it highlights the need to reduce the region's reliance on oil.
Larry Hughes, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax who studies energy issues, said he is concerned the disaster in Lac-Megantic, Que., will be used to help advance a proposal to ship oil through a pipeline from Alberta to the refinery in Saint John, N.B., on the premise that would be safer.
"There have been a spate of accidents moving oil products by rail and there have been pipeline accidents too," Hughes said Monday. "Rather than bringing (oil) here for the longer term, how can we get off of it? That's what we need to be asking ourselves."
Hughes said if plans for a west-to-east pipeline were to forge ahead, it would tie the region's energy supply to a 50-year investment that could mute environmental concerns.
"If we had a pipeline, the argument would be we have to continue using the oil because we have a pipeline and need to keep it full in order to ensure someone's rate of return," he said.
New Brunswick Premier David Alward has promoted the pipeline proposal, saying it would create jobs in a region that sorely needs them.
Alward declined to comment Monday on the merits of shipping oil via pipelines versus rail.
"There will be an appropriate time and place to have all those discussions," he said in a statement. "But right now our thoughts and prayers and any support we can offer are with the people of Lac-Megantic and province of Quebec."
Hughes said it would make more sense to have tanker ships bring oil to the Irving Oil refinery from Quebec, rather than building a 1,400-kilometre extension into Saint John as TransCanada Corp. is considering, because that would be safer as they are required to have double hulls.
It would also give the region more flexibility to diversify its energy supply, especially as the use of alternative resources such as solar, wind and biofuels increase over the next 20 years, he said.
"Why invest in a pipeline when we could be investing longer term for various types of renewables to help us reduce our reliance on oil for things such as heating and transportation?" Hughes said.
Irving Oil has boosted its use of rail cars in recent years to import western crude. Mike Ashar, who was president of the company in December while hosting a tour of the Saint John refinery, said at the time it wanted to buy more oil from Alberta and would like to see the pipeline project become a reality.
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To me what Larry Hughes says makes perfect sense. It's not that we need to all start conserving gas by riding bicycles. It's that this pipeline is extremely expensive. So exporting more gas is going to encourage others to drive cars & polute the world's air. We need that as much as advocating our own children start smoking and become addicted to nicotine ( i.e. we need it like a hole in the head ). Instead of investing in the pipeline we need to invest in ways to reduce our use of oil. If it's technology we invent, we can sell it to the world, if it's methods that companies implement, we can sell that too. Oil is old technology. Why invest our hard earned money in it any more than we have to do? Find ways for our vehicles to use less oil, find ways for homes to release less heat into the atmosphere. Ok, sure, if you want to bike to work you can do that too. Every way we reduce our dependence on oil reduces our costs. Every way we implement new methods to contain energy and use it later helps further. Why would anyone want to increase their dependence on oil purposely?
Nice that the professor is earning a three digit salary and can afford to be more environmentally sensitive but the average Maritime consumer struggles to put fuel in their vehicle to get to work.Fuel prices generally reflect the law of supply and demand and our fuel prices here are much higher than most of Canada.Let's get a reliable supply of oil to our region and compete on an equal footing with the rest of Canada.Our local consumers deserve better.
It was my understanding that the purpose of the west-east pipeline to the Irving refinery in Saint John was for **export** purposes, not to supply the local area, as our usage on a relative basis is very small. If a pipeline was built, I don't see how this would prevent us from pursuing renewable energy alternatives to oil.