I believe pipelines, especially in Canada, are a lot safer than oil trains, especially ones that travel eight blocks from my home.
Vancouver Energy says that its oil would be shipped to oil refineries on the West Coast. As of January 2015, there were 137 oil refineries operating in the U.S. Texas and Louisiana lead, and Washington state is fifth in capacity, though we produce no oil!
Washington’s oil comes from Alaska, via tanker; from North Dakota, via train; and from Alberta, via pipeline. Our northern coast has five refineries. The biggest, Cherry Point, is the last built in the U.S., finished in 1971.
North of us, Kinder Morgan has proposed to run a second pipeline next to the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline that runs from Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia. That would increase the system’s capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day. British Columbia has only two small refineries. Where will the oil go? Plans show that the oil would be put in tankers and shipped to California and Asia.
