Oil and water don't mix, at least as far as the City of Vancouver is concerned.
As Kinder Morgan launches a series of information sessions in the Metro Vancouver area about the proposed expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, city officials are exploring whether Vancouver can force the Texas-based company to increase its liability coverage in kind.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, whose council has voted to oppose the expansion, said the city would be affected by any oil spill and staff are working on a bylaw that will ensure the company has enough liability insurance to cover costs in a worst-case scenario.
"We're seeing taxpayer impact from the spill in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez. We're seeing that impact in the Gulf [of Mexico] oil spill. We don't ever want to see that in Vancouver," Robertson said.
Demanding liability coverage over and above the $1.3 billion to which the company currently has access is an extra measure of accountability, he said.
"That can't be on the back of the city. That's part of our overall concern with having a pipeline tripled and oil tankers coming through our harbour and putting our city at risk."
The proposal by Kinder Morgan to see the existing pipeline from Alberta to Metro Vancouver twinned has gone largely unnoticed as public debate has focused intensely on the Northern Gateway pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge through northern sa国际传媒
