Recently, the government of Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada, reached a deal with Kinder Morgan, an American energy firm, by which the Canadian government would buy the troubled Trans-Mountain pipeline project for almost five million Canadian dollars, which is quite the flock of Loonies. This is another one of the death-funnels designed to bring the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels to the world via lands that people care about, and now Trudeau’s government owns the damn thing.

Canadian opposition to this project always has been strong, especially among what the Canadians call their First Nations people, and this latest attempt to nationalize—and thereby, revive—the project is roiling Canadian politics generally. But there is opposition on this side of the border, too. Governor Jay Inslee of Washington, on whom you should keep an eye, weighed in against the deal in an op-ed in The Seattle Times.

The pipeline expansion would increase Canadian oil-tanker traffic sevenfold, putting an estimated 350 more tankers a year in the Salish Sea, critical habitat where our orcas do most of their hunting. It would significantly increase the risk of oil spills and take us backward in our transition to a clean-energy future. This project runs counter to everything our state is doing to fight climate change, protect our endangered southern resident killer whales and protect communities from the risks associated with increased fossil-fuel transportation — by rail and by sea.

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Though we have a good safety record in Washington waters, accidents still happen. Our state has experienced numerous oil spills in the last few decades, including the Mobil Oil tanker spill on the Columbia River and the Nestucca oil barge spill near Grays Harbor. This pipeline would carry diluted bitumen, among the dirtiest of oils, across our waters and the Pacific. Production and consumption of this type of oil creates 10 to 40 percent more greenhouse-gas pollution than many conventional oil sources. A major spill in the Puget Sound, one of our most beautiful and fragile ecosystems, would be devastating and require entirely different equipment and strategies than those used in conventional oil spills. Researchers recently simulated a 4 million gallon diluted bitumen oil spill north of the San Juans, estimating that it would cover between 22 and 80 percent of the southern resident killer whale’s critical habitat.

You simply cannot claim that your government is committed to fighting the climate crisis while simultaneously being party to extracting and transporting and employing this poisonous glop. Trudeau can’t and neither can this president*. Oil sands are increasingly being seen as the threat they are, a fuel source not worth the candle. From The Albany Times-Union:

Environmental groups, South End residents and local leaders all welcomed a decision Tuesday by an oil company to abandon its five-year-old plan to install a facility at the Port of Albany that could have handled Canadian tar sands oil. The decision by Massachusetts-based Global Companies to drop a controversial bid for natural-gas fired boilers marked the end of a legal struggle that began in 2013 when the company first sought a state permit.

The good people at DeSmog blog have pointed out that the oil-sands industry is close to finding a safer way to transport the gunk, in pelletized form called “pucks” because, well, Canada. However, “keep it in the ground” is still the safest option, although it’s one that Justin Trudeau will not consider. Between the tariff brawl kicked off by our president*, and Inslee taking on Trudeau, the world is sad when Canada and the United States fight.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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