International Implications of Trudeau's Kinder Morgan Pipeline Approval

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Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s decision this week to approve a major expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline has negative implications that go well beyond the borders of theย Great Whiteย North.

Canada is currently the largest supplier of oil to the United States. We export more oil to the US than Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico combined. We are a secure, stable and reliable trading partner with the US for a product that can make or breakย theirย economy.

Right now, Canada has almost zero ability to transport its oil to anywhere other than the United States.ย There is no big spigot off of our east, west or north coasts that allows forย overseas export to other markets, particularly inย Asia.ย 

Approving the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion changes all of that, and for the first time Canada might be capable of shipping significant amounts of oil to markets other than the United States (assuming the project is actually completed โ€” a big question mark given ongoing First Nations’ย legal challenges and resistance from Britishย Columbians).

This fact has got to have the attention of the US government.ย Their stable, reliable and secure oil supply is now, for the first time in history, under threat of going to otherย markets.

What is President-elect Donald Trump Thinking Aboutย This?

I would bet this announcement is on President-elect Trump’s radar. Trump has promised to renegotiate or even terminateย the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. Trump has also promised to restart the process of building the Keystone XL pipeline that would significantly expand transport capacity for tar sands oil from Canada to the United States and foreign export markets via the Gulf ofย Mexico.ย 

While there is no doubt a benefit to Canadaย diversifying the customer base for its oil products, it may come at the expense of ticking off our biggest customer to the south.ย In the complicated world of geopolitics and oil, who knows where this couldย lead.

Trudeauย Just Knocked Over the Firstย Dominoย 

Here is a graph showing the largest proposed oil and gasย projects in the world, along with the carbon emissions they will put into ourย atmosphere:

According to a report earlier this year by Oil Change International, if these projects are built, we are toast. Burnt toast thatย is.

It is crucial to the earth’s climate that the projects represented in this graph are never built. Canada is in that top five as you can see, and you can also see that some not-too-cooperative countries are also in the top five, including Russia andย Iran.ย 

What kind of message does Trudeau’s approval of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project send to these other countries like Russia, Iran andย Qatar?

I don’t think it is much of a stretch to say that if there was any inkling of hesitationย amongst these other countries to not proceed with building their own new pipelines, that has all been thrown out the window with Trudeau’sย decision.ย 

In fact, it is most likely that many of the countries in this graph will speed up their timelines, so as to maintain aย competitive edge in the oil market over usย Canadians.ย 

Oceans Have Noย Borders

The Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion will increase oil tanker traffic from around 60 tankers per year to more than 400. So instead of a massive oil tanker coming through Vancouver’s waterfront and the Burrard Inlet on average every couple of weeks, we will now see on average one aย day.

Experts have always said that when it comes to oil tankers, spills are not a question of if, but when. We have been relatively lucky so far that the only major spill from the existing Trans Mountain pipeline happened on land. And no matter how prepared we could be for a spill in our Inner Harbor here in Vancouver (which history has shown not to be the case), the problem is likely not containable within our ownย borders.

According toย media reportsย last year, the neighboring Washington State government is โ€œworried about Canada’s ability to respond to oil spills.โ€ And they should be considering that the US-Canada ocean border is only a few miles from where all these oil tankers would travel through. The US San Juan islands for instance is a major tourism destination and home to diverse marine life,ย and is inย serious risk from any spill that happens just up theย coast.ย 


Image credit: Wildernessย Committee

First Nations communities onย both sides of the borderย are tied togetherย inย the Salish Sea, which predates any borders. The Coast Salish nations, along with many other First Nations’ย communities, are strongly opposed to this pipeline and so we will see mounting opposition and court proceedings, with implications that will likely reach across the Canada-USย border.ย 

Our friends inย the US take on a lot of risk from a potential oil spill, but see none of the economic benefits of Canada’s expanded oil exportย capabilities.

All risk and no reward is likely something that is not sitting too well with Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, who is a very vocal supporter of action on climateย change.

What About the Parisย Agreement?

The Paris Agreement, negotiated late last year by 195 countries, commitsย the vast majority of worldย leaders to dealing with the issue of climate change by committing to significantly reducing their country’s greenhouse gas emissions over the comingย decades.

At the time, newly-elected Prime Minister Trudeau and his Environment Minister Catherine McKenna were a breath of fresh air at the Pairs climate talks.ย  As much as we are a small country (by population), Canada is a significant player at these climate negotiations because per-capita we are historically a large emitter of greenhouse gas pollution. We also hold massive amounts of greenhouse gas reserves in our oil sands and other fossil fuel deposits. So to see Trudeau and McKenna step up at the Paris climate talks was a bigย deal.ย 

The Paris Agreement is both a functional documentย and a symbolic one, and in many ways its symbolism is the more powerful of theย two.

The Paris Agreement sent a resounding message to the world that business-as-usual is no longer acceptable. It made clear to the global business community that the days of paying lip service to concerns about climate change is no longer acceptable, and markets haveย reacted.ย 

Speaking of lip service, did you hear about Prime Minister Trudeau approving a new expansion in oil sands pipelines that will lock in massive new amounts of carbon being pumped into ourย atmosphere?ย 

Somehow Trudeau and his government think they can reconcile a commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change with the construction of a new pipeline that will greatly increase emissions of the very thing the agreement isย trying toย reduce.

On paper Trudeauย might be able to make that case, but he isย missing the real point of the Paris Agreement and that is the signal it sends out to theย world.ย 

With Trudeau approving the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, he and his government have just thrown a big bucket of sloppy crude onto that clear and resounding signal theย Paris Agreement sent out to theย world.ย 

Between domestic unrestย and the international ramifications, this pipeline decision will likely come to define much of Trudeau’s time in government, which quite honestly I think is something this Prime Minister really didn’t think through thatย well.

Image courtesy of Abdallahh on Flickrย under creativeย commons.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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