• Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Pardon my ignorance but don’t we already have a pipeline that covers the benefits alleged for the second pipeline?

    The creation of a second pipeline to British Columbia would allow sales to diversify and let Alberta’s oil to chase the world price instead of selling at a permanent discount because it’s ‘locked into’ a relationship with American refineries. That’s more money for Canada plus less leverage by the US over our future.

    Maybe my memory fails me but doesn’t the existing trans mountain pipeline already connects to the Burnaby port where it can be shipped overseas? Is the point that the current pipeline flow to Asia is at capacity and is limiting our capacity to shift away from US exports?

    • CloudwalkingOwl@lemmy.caOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      That’s my understanding. Although if you read you hear lots of conflicting things. I try to restrict myself to good news sources like the CBC, government websites, peer-reviewed articles, etc.

      • Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        I see. I don’t have a good source to tell me at a glance if the existing pipeline really is the bottleneck for market diversification at this point. It’s plausible. If that’s the case, then I agree it’s a positive; though I can’t also comfortably say it’s net positive yet

        • CloudwalkingOwl@lemmy.caOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          Since something like 96% of Canadian oil was sold to the USA in 2024 (I posted a chart that says this in the article), I’d be really surprised that there was enough bandwidth in the pipeline to really pull a lot of oil out of the American market and switch it to China and Europe. And don’t forget I was saying that these pipelines probably won’t make strict market sense. They aren’t meant to be about making money for shareholders so much as to build resilience and independence for both ourselves and our allies in other countries. That’s part of what I meant when I talked about the end of the neo-liberal consensus.