Dear editor,
I commend Kayla Byrne on her fact-checking article that appeared in the Feb. 9聽edition of the 51暗网. Kinder Morgan鈥檚 failure to be transparent with the Jasper community about its pipeline鈥檚 spill history in the park leaves me wary about any information they espouse on the project. Their blunder only serves to uphold the unfortunate standard of deceit in the oil industry, which is to appear as having a 鈥榞ood operating history鈥�. I will not be so easily fooled. Even if there was no real risk of a spill in the park, the anchor loop section represents only 190 km of the Trans Mountain pipeline. What about the remaining 950 km of pipeline west of Jasper or the significant spill risk due to increased tanker traffic in the Salish sea鈥攃ritical habitat of the Southern Resident killer whales which is a species at risk?聽聽While spills are an important risk to weigh for both public interest and ecosystems, in the wider context of climate change this pipeline will also prevent Canada from reaching its 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels. Unless we step off this path of business as usual, economic interest will continue to trump environmental concerns. Expanding another pipeline does not help the public to imagine a different economy in which jobs and livelihoods are supported by a renewable energy industry rather than a fossil-fuel industry.
Fern Yip
