Offshore Energy: A Bridge to the Future

The Vancouver Province
Attention: Letters to the Editor

May 19, 2004

Dear Editor:

James Mcnulty rejects the notion of offshore energy development and appears to opt instead for the status quo – a growing world population, greater energy requirements, finite global oil and gas reserves and insufficient market investment in alternatives. (Gas prices fuel offshore oil mania, May 19.)

The sensible reader will realize the status quo looks more like a potential train wreck than it does a prescription for sustainability.

Whether it’s the North Sea, China, the Gulf of Mexico, or Canada’s Hibernia off Newfoundland – offshore energy’s record of safety is clear and unquestioned.

Most oil spills, for example, are from tankers transporting oil thousands of miles from other countries, not from oil platforms right off the coast.

But more importantly, in offshore oil and gas BC has a tremendous potential to seize this opportunity and to do something truly constructive with it for the long-term benefit of all British Columbians.

Why not set up a fund supported by offshore oil and gas revenues to finance development of renewable energy technologies like wind, hydro-electric, biomass and geothermal? The fund could be a bridge to a sustainable future, to assist BC in becoming a leader in renewable technologies. The focus should be on developing state-of-the-art, cost-effective energy generation using market-based principles.

Time to think outside the box, Mr. Mcnulty. We need to get beyond the conflict and the name-calling and seek real, practical solutions to providing for human requirements for the long term.