Dear editor,
Re: Petroleum panic a barge too far (B.C. Views, Oct. 19).
I read Tom Fletcher’s articles regularly and agree with most of his positions, but I have one pet peeve regarding the unrealistic opposition to the completion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
It is true that the tanker traffic out of Vancouver harbour would increase but I believe that there has not been one accident all the years that tankers have been leaving this terminal for the high seas. My problem is that hundreds of cruise ships leave Vancouver harbour every year and have many many thousands of litres of bunker “C” fuel in their holds, but everyone seems to think this is perfectly OK and does not pose a problem.
I assume that the cruise ships are all double-hulled, as are of course all the tankers that would carry crude oil from the terminal to the ocean. If they are not all doubled-hulled, this would present an even greater danger to the environment than the crude oil tankers that are all double-hulled and very carefully escorted out of Vancouver harbour by tugs.
E.G. Compton, P. Eng
Courtenay