Washington Gov. Jay InsleeB次元官网网址檚 visit to Vancouver raised a few eyebrows when he appeared to support to B.C. Premier John HorganB次元官网网址檚 effort to stop the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline system.

Inslee sidestepped a question from a Vancouver reporter about his own stateB次元官网网址檚 use of the pipeline to supply crude to its refineries at Anacortes, Cherry Point and Ferndale, some of which is sold back to B.C. as refined fuels.

Kinder Morgan, current operator of the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta to its terminal in Burnaby, also operates a branch line running from Abbotsford to Washington that supplies the Shell and Tesoro refinery complex at Anacortes, the Phillips 66 refinery at Ferndale and BPB次元官网网址檚 Cherry Point facility, the largest in Washington located just 11 km south of Blaine.

View from Anacortes, WA to the sprawling Shell-Tesoro refinery complex at March Point. This and two other big WA refineries are supplied by and Alaska tankers running daily past B.C.

B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)

Inslee spoke of shipping noise affecting orcas and a growing demand for electric cars in his state, and avoided discussing WashingtonB次元官网网址檚 own busy oil industry. He noted his stateB次元官网网址檚 rejection of an oil port at Vancouver, Washington, to transport shale oil produced from North Dakota, and thermal coal export facilities proposed to deliver from Wyoming to Asia. 

B次元官网网址淲e share the most beautiful part of at least North America,B次元官网网址� Inslee said at a joint news conference with Horgan Friday announcing a high-speed rail study. B次元官网网址淎nd that vision that we have of perpetuating that beauty for our grandchildren is at risk by increasing the tanker traffic through the Haro Strait and the Strait of Juan de Fuca by going up about five to seven times.B次元官网网址�

But most of the existing tanker traffic around the south end of Vancouver Island is coming from Alaska, and heading for those Washington refineries and others in California. The Seattle-based estimates that while 10 per cent of WashingtonB次元官网网址檚 crude oil comes from the Alberta oil sands via Trans Mountain, more than half comes from AlaskaB次元官网网址檚 Valdez tanker terminal. Washington refineries also receive crude oil tankers from the Middle East and Africa, and oil by rail from growing U.S. shale production is also increasing.

RELATED:

Inslee warned of a B次元官网网址渄ramaticB次元官网网址� increase in tanker traffic from the Trans Mountain expansion. In fact it would represent a six per cent increase in total shipping traffic for the region, including freighters loaded with barely refined bunker fuel and U.S. fuel barges like the one that ran aground at Bella Bella in 2016.