A spill is likely eh? Do you have any idea how many on and off shore rigs and pipelines exist? How many spills do you hear about on the news each day? That’s what I thought…
See, you want the oil, but you don’t want this going on in your own backyard. That oil is going to come out of the ground sooner or later. Better to suck it up now, and embrace the good that will come from it.
Yeeeee haw! Someone pass me a pipe wrench…
I’d be for it if it would benefit us but it wont. We would still continue to pay a premium for oil no matter how much we take out of the ground.
How do you figure? Gas in cheaper in Alberta.
I guess a thriving economy from all the workers it would employ isn’t a benefit to anybody though.
How much is gas in Alberta? It’s only cheaper than BC’s because of less provincial tax. $1.10 is the cheapest I saw in Calgary on Saturday. $1.12 is the cheapest I saw in Prince George on Sunday. How much is BC fuel tax?
In fact, a lot of Albertans complain that their gas prices should be much cheaper. They complain that they’re actually paying more than they should be, especially when you consider much of the fuel is produced there.
There isn’t very much competition in the Canadian fuel refining and wholesale market (in some markets, there is zero competition).
Some provinces, realizing this fact, have begun to regulate their gas wholesalers (in some cases, gas wholesaler, as there is only one) as they do electric and natural gas suppliers.
Alberta (and BC) needs to do the same. Either that, or encourage other wholesalers to enter the market and provide competition.
Isn’t there a big difference between digging into solid ground for oil, and digging to depths of however many fathoms and THEN hitting solid ground?
I did a big debate in BC geography (I think it was that class) over whether we should dig in Hecate Strait or not, we discovered that most people just see the dollar signs when they think of oil exploration, and don’t see any of the potential risks, or problems that go along with all of it.
There are a lot more environmental factors and margin of error you’d have to deal with if you drilled in Hecate Strait, rather than drilling in the plains of Alberta.
Hecate Strait would be a lot easier than the North Sea or the Grand Banks. They’ve been able to have huge projects there without major incidents. The weather off Norway and Newfoundland is a lot worse than here, and they have to deal with icebergs as well as rougher seas.
The other side of the coin is that since it’s offshore, it’s a federal jurisdiction, not a provincial one. So the taxes go to the feds, not the province.
If you look at how Newfoundland has fared with its huge offshore projects, you’ll find that although St. John’s has boomed, the province as a whole hasn’t. It’s only recently that the province as a whole is benefiting (because the feds have allowed Newfoundland to have its equalization payments and royalties), and that may not last too long.
I think that was paperboy who works with the DN.
Poolboy… not paperboy. Close though 
Big difference? Honestly, not really. Land rigs have a well head sitting on the ground in front of you, ocean platforms have a well head a long way down on the sea floor. Both rigs typically run in pipe, and do various things to the well to get ‘er flowin’. The only difference being you need a lot more pipe to get to that well head on the sea floor. Other than that, they do exactly the same thing.
The well can be totally isolated from the atmosphere/sea instantly if you need it. The sterotypically shot of an oil rig with oil spitting out the top is a bad thing, and rigs are good at making sure that doesn’t happen.
The big spills most have heard of are when shipping tanks run amuck, but that don’t happen very much. Seriously, it’s like seeing an airplane crash on the news. Are you gonna stop taking the plane now? Let’s focus on all the safe landings they’ve had.