Blair King Profile picture
Jun 20, 2018 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
The real problem with the @TransMtn file is that the people involved have allowed themselves to be misinformed on so many levels This Guardian piece is the result of years of misinformation piled up on itself. It is hard to fight this type of message #bcpoli #abpoli @keithbaldrey
Diluted bitumen is not the most toxic type of oil, an analysis of the relative risks of the alternatives to the TMX (yes we do have to consider the alternatives) mean much higher risk to the Salish Sea, but we don't hear that because that is not the story the activists tell 2/
The activists pretend that if they stop the pipeline then magically all fossil fuels will stop. But the Puget Sound and BC will still need fuels and they will be coming in less safe means because they won't have the new NEB requirements 3/
Somehow this article also assumes that the government will get tired of enforcing rules...I really don't understand that point so there will be a higher risk to the Inlet...yeah that doesn't make sense 4/
As for the Puget Sound, it is seeing about 20,000 train car loads of fuel every year (and increasing) running along the Columbia Valley Gorge. Even one of those train cars de-railing into the Columbia has the potential to kill the Columbia Fishery. 5/
As for the Fraser Canyon, same story only not as many rail cars...yet...but should the pipeline not go through that means more tankers risking the Thompson and Fraser Rivers. But that isn't mentioned.... 6/
As for the Salish Sea, the BP facility in Anacortes currently sees an average of 300+ tankers a year unloading there. The pipeline will reduce that number. That is tens of thousands of tankers (with lower safety standards) every year 7/
So when the article claims it is reducing the risks to the Salish Sea it is doing nothing of the sort. The crude still has to get there somehow and the Salish Sea doesn't car if it is Canadian or Saudi crude spilled in the Salish Sea 8/
Ultimately what we have is a false narrative spread by the activists who don't care to discuss relative risks. They have an agenda and virtually none of them are capable of (or willing to) assessing the relative risks so we get articles like this one 9/

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More from @BlairKing_ca

Aug 22, 2018
@ghoberg Fascinated by the language, content and references in this syllabus. It almost appears like it is designed to elicit a specific response from the students. It is interesting what information is missing and which references were chosen to represent the info. 1/
@ghoberg Let's start with the activist's favourite starting point. Any document that starts introduces the project with the term "Texas-based oil and gas company"...is bound to have issues. 2/
@ghoberg Then introducing the project you somehow forget to note that Line 1 is intended to supply refined fuels and light crudes, instead implying that it will be used in the same way as it was when there was only 1 line. 3/
Read 8 tweets
Jul 31, 2018
Scientists are supposed to get the science right in articles like this. Yet this piece misinforms about the relative effect on the boreal forest; on the toxicity of dilbit; on spill response; and on shipping and processing. #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli @sjmuir 1/
The article implies that mining is a risk to the Boreal Forest. The area it is technically possible to mine oil sands represents less than 0.02% of the Canadian Boreal forest, less that 0.01% is being mined. More area burns most years than is mined #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 2/
The article gets the chemistry of dlibit completely wrong. Dilbit has much less benzene than a typical light crude oil and diluent is almost entirely aliphatic in nature. Don't get me started on her use of the word "tar" #bcpoli #cdnpoli #abpoli 3/
Read 7 tweets
May 17, 2018
Amused last night to be informed that:

"I just think you suffer from reductionist thinking"

As a practitioner in the natural sciences that is like being told you "suffer from being too attractive and too popular". As insults go it is one I can wear #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli 1/
In the field of energy and pipelines thinking in a reductionist style means recognizing that we will still need ambulances and firetrucks in any energy future so any solution I come up with needs to include those types of services #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli 2/
Being a reductionist (and a pragmatist) means acknowledging that sometimes you have to make the best of a number of imperfect choices because choosing not to make a choice is actually a choice, a choice to do nothing #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli 3/
Read 22 tweets
May 16, 2018
I find the most frustrating thing about talking to activists is that since none of them have any reasonable education in the field of environmental science/history that we don't have a common baseline for a reasonable dialogue 1/ #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli
These film students and political scientists don't understand the language of toxicity, they have no grounding in empirical science and have no understanding of what we have learned from the past. They imagine they are the first to have had ideas 2/ #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli
We advance science and other empirical fields by incremental advances in the knowledge-base. We build on ideas and research carried out in the past. This knowledge-base is passed on through environmental education 3/ #bcpoli #abpoli #cdnpoli
Read 11 tweets
Apr 11, 2018
Listened to @AJWVictoriaBC on the @CBCStephenQuinn and the number of errors he made was stunning. Alberta oils aren't even the dirtiest oil in North America that comes from California (Placerita oil field). The dirtiest oil in world is Nigerian (Bass oil field) #bcpoli #abpoli 1/
He keeps harping back to the RSC report but it is almost as if he hasn't read that report because it doesn't say what he keeps claiming it does achemistinlangley.net/2018/02/09/on-… #bcpoli #abpoli 2/
He keeps claiming that diluted bitumen is "not oil". That is simply wrong. Certainty bitumen is an unconventional oil but by every definition under the sun it is a type of crude oil. I'm not sure why he keeps making such a demonstrably wrong statement. #bcpoli #abpoli 3/
Read 7 tweets

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