I’m writing regarding the Peninsula Voices letter of Nov. 1, “Oil challenges.”
Yes, we did carpool, ride bicycles and walk to the event.
We also do our very best to minimize our carbon footprint in any way we can.
However, that was not the point of the demonstration.
The Kinder Morgan pipeline and similar projects are designed to transport Alberta tar sands bitumen to a Vancouver, B.C. port, where it would be loaded onto marine transports destined for Asia.
The problems associated are numerous, according to media reports, and include:
• Tar sands oil is one of the most pollution-producing energy sources known, equivalent to coal in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases produced.
• TSO is denser than water and when spilled sinks to the bottom, making it nearly impossible to clean up.
• Activating the Kinder Morgan pipeline would increase tanker and barge traffic sevenfold in the Salish Sea and Strait of Juan de Fuca, increasing the risk of a major spill many times.
• The greatly increased risk from these pipelines to our marine environment, fisheries and economy would be of no benefit to the people of Washington.
The TSO is produced mainly by Canadian companies (two of the largest of which are 60 percent Chinese-owned) and marketed in Asia, as has been reported in the media.
We are assuming huge environmental and economic risks for no benefit at all.
As reported in the media, the protest was intended to encourage the banks to invest in clean renewable energy rather than environmentally destructive projects.
Paul V. Hansen,
Sequim