[IPSM] Mackenzie Gas Project expected to double N.W.T. emissions

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Introductory rant by Macdonald Stainsby

The organization mentioned below, Ecology North, is one of Yellowknife's 
local NGO's whose politics on the construction of the single largest 
industrial project in the history of the Canadian state is to-- in their 
own words-- make the pipeline green. The logic of expecting capitalist 
regulated industry to regulate and "force" MGP proponents to use "green" 
technologies is kind of like asking SNC Lavalin to build weapons that 
don't kill.

There are a number of NGO's and other organizations who wish to bring 
serious, impotant criticisms to the current JRP hearings underway. Some 
of these, such as CARC, continue to provide very good understanding of 
what is really at stake, not just in the scope of this project, but for 
the entire north that will see further and further "progress" with this 
massive project; what is proposed will not be the end, but barely the 
beginning.

Their excellent map and explanation can be downloaded and printed off here:
http://carc.org/2005/A%20CHOICE%20OF%20FUTURES%20final.pdf

In that process, the land will be torn up, resources will flow south, 
the air will be heated further and the traditional economy of indigenous 
nations of the north will be wiped out by modern day enclosures and 
right-of-ways. The data provided by the Ecology North below is logical, 
yet their "counter ideas" are as logical as a war without bombs or death.

Many people use the Orwellian spin of making their language sound il 
fait accompli as per the pMGP, and that those who resist are living in a 
dream world, but the real dream world is the idea that one can pave the 
planet and over-run the population base of local indigenous nations 
witohut destroying either and everyone comes up happy. That kind of 
"compromise politics" is the most dangerous and fanciful notion of 
fantasy that has been yet established in Denendeh.

Though basically a rhetorical argument asking a wolf pack to eat their 
prey far slower than will satisfy the appetite, the idea of asking the 
energy companies to simply lower the volume of gas shipped south in such 
a pipeline is raised and the consequences shown. However, that only 
makes sense if one doesn't think the pMGP proponents want to use the 
pMGP as a springboard to the total industrialization of the north, the 
massive raising of Greenhouse gas emissions, and most importantly: using 
the gas to decimate and carve up northern Alberta for tarsand petroleum. 
Oh, yeah: Northern nations will be reduced, like elsewhere on Turtle 
Island for the last over 500 years, to a small minority on their own 
land while non-indigenous persons come in to construct project after 
project (and bringing, like all work camps of this sort, drugs, alcohol 
and single mothers of children whose fathers went back south as soon as 
they could).

In other words, any and all of these "eco reforms" to the project fly in 
the face of the projects goal: the goal of the project is to cheaply 
come up with energy to produce gasoline, through the dirtiest process 
imaginable. All of these results and destructions are before a single 
drop of petrol gets into a single vehicle.

All of this gasoline, after using the land of the north, would not even 
get used in the "Canadian" south, but would instead be shipped further 
to the USA, helping "reduce reliance on foreign oil and gas reserves".

One cannot keep the global lie of the oil economy afloat and talk about 
saving the environment at the same time.

Macdonald

Mackenzie pipeline expected to double N.W.T. emissions

When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the proposed Mackenzie Valley 
gas pipeline would be like adding 400,000 more cars to the roads of the 
Northwest Territories, Ecology North spokesman Doug Ritchie says.

Speaking to the Mackenzie Gas Project Joint Review Panel in Yellowknife 
Wednesday, Ritchie said the increased emissions generated by the 
multibillion-dollar project would simply add to the growing problem of 
climate change.

The federal government wants pipeline proponent Imperial Oil and its 
partners to minimize emissions but it has not set any specific targets.

Ritchie says Imperial Oil should have to offset the damage of additional 
emissions by building 8,000 wind generators and renovating six million 
homes.

Imperial Oil's Michelle LaPlante says the project would add 1.7 million 
tonnes to the territory's annual emissions, effectively doubling the 
current amount, which is low compared with other jurisdictions.

However, she said, expecting the pipeline owners to pay for alternatives 
such as wind generators is unrealistic.
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"Implementing Ecology North's recommendation would impose a significant 
cost burden which goes well above and beyond any requirement for any 
project in Canada," LaPlante said.

Environment Canada representatives told the panel they did not think the 
project would "degrade air quality significantly" in the region.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2006/10/19/greenhouse-pipeline.html

-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.