Things that don't
Concern Us
and go bump in the night!

Living in British Columbia would be a lot like being a mushroom, being in the dark and feeding on horse manure, if it wasn't for the internet. If it was up to PostMedia, Global, CeeTeeVee and increasingly even the CBC, we would never know anything that doesn't suit the corporate owners of our media and our government or promote their greed greased agenda. Just next door in Idaho and Montana there is a major kefluffle going on that directly relates to us and our neighbor Texas North, otherwise known as Alberta, you know the province whose interests the Prime Minister of Canada represents in Ottawa, Cancun and where ever else he goes embarrassing Canadians globally.

This story has it all, globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs in North America, environmental devastation writ large in the blot on the planet the goo pits of Northern Alberta.

I'll let the Portland Oregonian take it from here:

Giant Alberta-bound oil-sands shipments stall in Idaho as opposition mounts

Imperial Oil managers thought they'd discovered a new Northwest Passage when they decided to send more than 200 giant factory building blocks from South Korea to Canada via Idaho.

The largest of the massive modules, built as pieces of an $8 billion project in Alberta's oil sands, are wide as two-lane highways, taller than freeway overpasses and two-thirds the length of football fields. Imperial planned to ship the behemoths to Vancouver, barge them upriver and unload them in Lewiston, Idaho.

For $100 million or so, Imperial intended to relocate overhead wires in Idaho and Montana, build dozens of highway pullouts and haul each load in the dead of night to Canada. The route, on winding highways free of overpasses, would avoid a much longer journey through the Panama Canal, the Great Lakes and Minnesota.

But Imperial finds its initial 34 shipments stranded in Lewiston, lacking state highway permits to complete the U.S. portion of the trip and facing activist groups with names like Fighting Goliath and All Against the Haul. Environmentalists are seizing the chance to rally U.S. opposition to Alberta's oil sands, where miners wrest tarry deposits from sand and send about 780,000 barrels of petroleum a day to the United States....../snip

Environmentalists oppose Imperial's mega loads on two main grounds, one being what they call permanent industrialization of Idaho and Montana scenic corridors, and the other being oil-sands impacts on Alberta and climate change. Bob McEnaney, a Natural Resources Defense Council public-lands expert, dug up Korean-language documents showing, he says, that over the next 10 years ExxonMobil expects another 1,000 massive factory modules made by South Korean company Sung Jin Geotec.

"You're basically industrializing what is one of the nation's first wild and scenic rivers," said, McEnaney, referring to Idaho's Lochsa River. "We're opposed to the tar sands to begin with because of the climate impacts."

Opponents are well organized with legal backing...../snip

A huge truck, a pusher truck, three pilot cars and two police cruisers would take nine nights to bring each load on the 510-mile route through Idaho and Montana...../snip
Imperial's permit applications are mired in a thicket of state court decisions and bureaucracy.

The controversy has snagged separate shipments of giant coker-drum equipment that Clackamas heavy hauler Emmert International plans to truck from Lewiston to a ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings, Mont. The four loads would travel partway on the same U.S. 12 route as the Imperial modules.

The ConocoPhillips debate went to the Idaho Supreme Court, which returned it to the state transportation department. A hearing is planned in Boise Wednesday and Thursday.

"We're still sitting and waiting," said Mark Hefty, project development manager for Emmert, which specializes in large loads. "It's the first time we've ever run into anything like that."

Oil-sands critics are not generally trying to shut down operations. Instead The Pembina Institute, a Canadian research organization, calls for a pause on new approvals to give time to plan new projects responsibly and to reduce cumulative effects.

A commenter on the article going by the handle dinoslayer in the Portland newspaper makes perhaps too much sense when he suggests:

This, my friends, is just how stupid a species we truly are.

Why don't you....duhhhhh.... build the things where they're going to be used???

It's not as if Canada is lacking in skilled engineers, welders and just about any other specialist you'd want.

The expression, "penny wise but pound foolish" comes to mind.

Breaking News

A Message from Nathan Cullen - MP Skeena-Bulkley Valley:

DAY 5: We did it!
Thanks to your outstanding support we made our message clear.
We just won 143 – 138!
The House of Commons has now added its collective voice to our movement and given the Government clear direction to ban oil supertankers.
This is an important step towards protecting our ecosystem and marine economy – but work remains to be done.
Stay tuned for an update tomorrow morning
Thanks again!

Nathan Cullen, MP
Skeena-Bulkley Valley

And speaking of those upstanding individuals from Big Oil:

BREAKING: Nigeria Files Charges Against Cheney in Halliburton Bribery Scheme

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "The former vice president was charged by Nigerian officials Tuesday along with eight other individuals in a bribery scheme involving the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility that took place while Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton. Halliburton and its one-time subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), were also charged, according to Nigerian prosecutor Godwin Obla. 'It includes Dick Cheney,' Obla said about the 16-count charge filed in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. 'There are conspiracy charges and giving gratification to public officers. There is also a charge for obstruction of justice.'"