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OTTAWA — A popular TV science personality put Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the spot today to explain Canada’s approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which if built will increase the flow of oil from Alberta to the Pacific coast.
American scientist Bill Nye asked Trudeau to explain the Kinder Morgan decision in front of university students, saying later that he was surprised no one in the audience asked about pipelines.
Nye, best known as the host of the 1990s PBS show “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” cited a study by a group called The Solutions Project that concluded Canada could live entirely without fossil fuels if it acted to fully embrace renewable energy sources.
Trudeau said he agrees there is tremendous potential in Canada to develop renewal power from wind, solar, geothermal and as-yet-unimagined sources.
But he added that, in the meantime, Canada still needs to get its fossil fuels to market in the safest way possible — and doing so requires that pipelines be built.
Nye said he was encouraged by respected environmental scientists to speak out against the Kinder Morgan pipeline while with Trudeau, which he didn’t do on stage.
But the mechanical engineer later made clear to reporters he believes Alberta’s oilsands are an inefficient source of energy.
