Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Green party leader, Elizabeth May claims it's safer to move bitumen by rail than through pipelines. She has mentioned this in the House of Commons, written about it in her blog and told reporters. 'In a marine environment, diluted bitumen is, impossible to clean up.'
To which Michael Lowry from Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, responds, "The biggest spill we've ever cleaned up was a diluted bitumen spill."
Elizabeth May: "It wasn't dilbit." (DILuted BITumen)
They were actually referring to two different products. Lowry's company was cleaning up SynBit (SYNthetic BITumen), which is lighter, more likely to float, and thus easier to clean up than dilbit. They're both diluted bitumens that are shipped through pipelines, but SynBit is a 50/50 blend of bitumen and synthetic crude oil, whereas dilbit usually consists of approximately 70% bitumen and 30% diluent.
Lowry is the only one who means something other than dilbit when they mention diluted bitumen in this story.
Elizabeth May: "Since it's a solid, to put it in a pipe to get it to flow, they stir in fossil fuel condensate, naphtha, butane. Imagine that they stir in lighter fluid, stir in anything they can to get this solid tar called bitumen to flow through a pipeline, but unlike upgrading, this is not a step in the process of getting to a refineable product. This is only about getting it to flow through a pipeline. At its ultimate destination, a refinery, the diluent has to be removed."
May isn't endorsing the further expansion of Canada's fossil fuel sector. Her position on that is quite clear:
Elizabeth May: "Don't promote fossil fuel use. Don't build fossil fuel infrastructure - full stop - because of the climate crisis."
However if you are going to do it anyway:
Elizabeth May: "Our coastal waters are very, very much more at risk if we put bitumen in a pipeline."
"When Alberta and Federal fossil fuel supporters attempt to characterize British Columbia as a province or British Colombians and First Nations, as objectors to pipelines, they frame that objection as these people, these first nations, these environmentalists, this provincial government whatever, are trying to stop Alberta getting its resources to market."
"That's a quite familiar framing; That is completely false. Nobody would ever object to carrying solid bitumen to market, that's not the issue. The issue isn't keeping bitumen from going overseas."
"If you really want to get your product to market without getting British Colombians up in arms about destroying our ecosystems, threatening the 800 stream crossings between the Alberta border and the Burnaby Turnable terminal. If you want to ship that bitumen to buyers elsewhere in the world, you can put it on a train."