STIRRING THE POT - August 27, 2008
Stew Slater Often depending on the ideological basis currently in vogue, “peak oil” prognostication has swung between warnings of the collapse of the fossil fuel extraction sector due to decreased availability of oil/natural gas, and the collapse of humanity due to decreased availability of oxygen/food.
While these two scenarios may not lie at opposite ends of an ideological spectrum, they are, nonetheless, extreme. Even though logistical extrapolations of various factors may point unquestionably toward some sort of peak oil collapse, logic isn’t often reliable when it comes to human necessity and human creativity.
It’s impossible to predict the solutions the human brain will come up with –- alternatives to the internal combustion engine; energy from waste; increased fuel efficiency -– and there’s no guarantee the world will remain exactly as it is today on the other side of a peak oil twilight. But prototypical alternatives have already been developed in an ongoing era in which fossil fuel use remains relatively convenient and inexpensive. And it’s highly probable that ubiquitous solutions will be found in time to avert any major collapse.
For the most part, innovation won’t come from the fossil fuel extraction sector. If the Royal Dutch Shells, Venezuelan governments, and Suncors of the world were meant to feel the pressure of the rising cost of their activities –- both strictly economic and in terms of the long-term environmental and social costs –- it would have happened years ago. Instead, we’ve witnessed a range of government-sponsored extortion activities against the citizens and the environments of various nations –- including turning a blind eye to environmental degradations in Nigeria and Alberta; failing to adequately distribute nationalized oilfield wealth in Venezuela and Mexico; or ignoring human rights abuses in the Sudan or the Middle East.
Add to this the fact that those same companies generally receive tax breaks for transporting and processing fossil fuels, and it becomes clear there will be little pressure at those links in the peak oil chain.
The only stakeholders not benefitting from such subsidies or tax breaks are the users, marketers and local distributors. They’re now beginning to pay a rate that corresponds more closely with the true cost of our society’s fossil fuel dependence. Already, this has led farmers to install methane digesters in their manure tanks, and new home builders and buyers to pay the not-insignificant costs associated with geothermal heating.
The price at the pump is only the tip of the iceberg. Other oil sector costs, often hidden, have consistently risen in Ontario. And the recent Sunrise Petroleum explosion in Toronto only serves to highlight that point.
Since the explosion, facility manager Neil Primeau says it has been business as usual at the Dowler-Karn fuel distribution centre in Rannoch. But it showed up –- along with dozens of others in Ontario –- on the website of the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), on a list entitled “Sunrise comparable sites on Ontario.”
Primeau told me he has seen no evidence yet that the arms-length, industry-supported TSSA has stepped up what he described as an already strong inspection regime. But he was aware that, in response to the Toronto explosion, the Transportation Minister had required that the TSSA conduct inspections of all such facilities by the end of the year.
“So far, the only thing that I’m getting as a result of the (Sunrise) explosion is politicians that are firing off at the hip,” Primeau said, adding no member of the public has so far contacted Dowler-Karn with questions or concerns, and that my inquiry was the first contact the company had received from the media.
Still, subsequent to my conversation with Primeau, it was revealed that illegal truck-to-truck transfer of propane was the probable cause at Sunrise. And, whereas safety, human rights or environmental transgressions are likely to be paved over in the case of a huge fossil fuel extraction company that’s providing thousands of jobs, Sunrise Propane is –- like most in the local distribution and marketing sector -– a small-time operator. The government will come down hard.
And even though, as Primeau states, “everyone knows just from driving by that (Dowler-Karn) runs a pretty tight ship,” other relatively small-scale operators could get caught up in the crackdown.
On Queen Street East in St. Marys, meanwhile, we can expect disruptions for at least another month, stemming from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s recognition that leached gasoline is a threat to public safety. According to Town of St. Marys director of public works Kevin Luckhardt, extraction of contaminated soil underneath the portion of Charles Street adjacent to the former Searles Motors/Graham Energy fueling station is now complete.
But the painstaking process of removing soil and testing for gasoline –- believed to have leaked from a faulty underground line -– continues beneath Queen Street. And, although preliminary tests suggested there’s no gasoline beneath the properties north of Queen Street, Luckhardt couldn’t confirm until full testing of extracted soil is completed. And he certainly couldn’t confirm how long the work will take.
Luckhardt explains, “(Searles Motors and Graham Energy) are doing as they’re required. They’re fulfilling their responsibilities” with respect to the underground leak. He adds a spill like this “is not what you’d call a normal event.”
Yet, as with the increased vigilance now expected from propane marketers, small-scale operators of gas stations -– not those who extract petroleum -– must pay the price for the fact all of society is dependent on a product that can have serious effects if released into the environment.
It’s little wonder that we’re down to two fuelling stations within town limits (with Luckhardt suggesting it’s unlikely the Searles Motors site will be replaced, and rumours of a new station at the Independent grocery store seemingly floating off in the breeze). And it will be little wonder if the true innovations in energy efficiency and alternative energy come from the little guy, rather than from the huge corporations or governments which profit most from our society’s fossil fuel dependence.