Empty threats.... you think it’s more profitable to sell a pipeline full of unrefined oil, or a pipeline full of refined gas? The math is simple.
The Saudis are spending 44 billion dollars to build oil refineries... in INDIA.
Do you think that if refining the oil before exporting it was such an economic no-brainer, that the Saudis would be spending $44 billion to do the exact opposite?
Horgan and Weaver have been talking about what a great idea building refineries instead of pipelines is. When Horgan himself was BC's opposition energy critic, he was saying the exact opposite in response to proposals to expand BC refinery capacity, because he knew that the economic case wasn't supported.
If refining the diluted bitumen before putting it in tankers was such an economic win, why doesn't Horgan take that project on for BC? If he thinks making dil-bit into refined products to export is a huge win, he could bring BC onboard to do that here, so that the dil-bit doesn't ever reach the port. He could save the environment, create BC jobs, and support national unity all at once! He'd be a big hero.
But he won't, because he knows that in reality, all his talk about the economic benefits of doing the refining in Canada aren't supported by a real-world economic case.
-k