The Internet, the glory of our age, a blessing to anyone lacking information of any kind, is a curse to libraries, the postal service and all who would hide facts from the public.
In Whitehorse, there has been a great effort put forward by certain politicians to introduce fracking to the Yukon. “Fracking, this is Yukon, Yukon, this is fracking.” The latest back-door attempt involves replacing the functioning, 50-year-proven diesel generators with brand new $35-million LNG ones and trucking the fuel from Calgary. An attempt to alleviate fears of the volatility of LNG was made my Dave Glessner of Braemar Engineering. Apparently the safety record is quite excellent except for a few dead people.
There is a card game I’ve heard of where the players lie to each other until someone refers to a common farmyard byproduct and the cards are laid out for public scrutiny. If this was that game, I’d be calling now.
One Internet search of “LNG explosion” will set the record straight. Diesel fuel is difficult to ignite and slow burning. A co-worker in a welding shop once told me you could probably take a five gallon pail of diesel fuel and walk right through the middle of hell and it wouldn’t light. LNG, however, when it ignites obliterates everything in a large radius.
So where should we put it? I know, right next to the city dam. My family lives in Riverdale and if the blast from the storage tank doesn’t get ‘em, Schwatka Lake surely will mop up what’s left of downtown Whitehorse.
Doug Martens
Teslin