False dichotomy. It's not a choice between pipeline and rail, it's a choice between pipeline, rail, and nothing. Since its neighbours receive nothing but liabilities, regardless of which option is taken, I'll go with nothing.
Tar sands oil is an endless, pointless jobs program. It's barely afloat when oil prices are high, and a rock around the neck of the Canadian economy, and GHG commitments when they aren't. I'm not interested in drastically cutting back on my energy usage, to balance the books with one of the dirtiest fuel producers in the world.
Pipelines do nothing for me, but encourage this economically-destructive industry to expand. For every dollar of wealth it generates, it destroys a dollar and a dime.
Absolutely, 100%. And the distortions that "rip and ship" makes in the economy aren't worth it when oil prices are high. It makes some people rich but most of us just suffer net effects and I'm not even talking about climate change.
I've lived in Edmonton during oil-boom times, and during not-oil-boom times.. and the corrosive effect of the boom and bust cycle on the Albertan economy, it's not pretty.
And a high per-barrel price in Alberta does nothing good for manufacturing in the rest of the country, dragging our dollar up and making our exports less attractive and the costs of production higher. When the dollar is high also makes my labour as a software engineer more expensive, without much benefit to me.
Ah well, enough ranting, off to go pick up sushi in my electric car and I'm not even joking.
I'm looking at it through a lens of least impact overall and totally agree about the tar sands. Trucking is wasteful, shipping and trucking don't have a very good ecological safety record. A good step in reducing environmental effects of oil is to stop exporting it as that just moves the problem elsewhere. Being self sufficient and weaning ourselves off of oil & gas is a step in that direction.
We need to fix the problems at home before telling others what to do.
Given that break even for the tar sands has been in the $100/barrel range only recently (with process upgrades) may be as low as $40 (very optimistic in my books). It's certainly appears to need subsidies to survive.
Typically when oil prices drop (they were <$40 in early 2020), the oil sands companies put production on standby. It's like most oil exploration - it's either feast or famine depending on global prices.
Tar sands oil is an endless, pointless jobs program. It's barely afloat when oil prices are high, and a rock around the neck of the Canadian economy, and GHG commitments when they aren't. I'm not interested in drastically cutting back on my energy usage, to balance the books with one of the dirtiest fuel producers in the world.
Pipelines do nothing for me, but encourage this economically-destructive industry to expand. For every dollar of wealth it generates, it destroys a dollar and a dime.