Strange how this argument is almost never talked about but if you look at the statistics , the current modes of vehicular transportation are so exponentially worse for the environment per unit moved than pipelines it ' s not even funny . Honestly , with a new pipeline boasting standard spill warning systems , you have an accurate , live data stream on where and when a fault happens , and can dispatch a clean upmaintenance crews almost immediately to deal with it . Now imagine you ' re in your car on high way 1 in the BC Rockies and a tanker truck flips . The driver ' s stuck somewhere under the debris and you don ' t have cell reception . Now you have to drive back 20 minutes to the last place you had a signal and hope that by the time you do the truck hasn ' t spewed its entire contents into the fast flowing river by the side of the road . Then you have to wait for the ambulance , the spill crews , and hazmat teams to mobilize and actually get to you . Now imagine the same thing happening but nobody drove down the road until 20 minutes after it happened . Not to mention the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact large haul , vehicular transport is . Now scrub this entire scenario and imagine the same thing with a freight train on a railway that , in some places , is only accessible by the tracks themselves for miles in either direction . Oil and Pipelines are not a sustainable future for this country , but the fact of the matter is we don ' t have much of an option . Yes pipeline construction has been mismanaged and shadily done before , but that was primarily because the public focus wasn ' t really directed on the market and companies involved . Pipelines can be a safe option for transport , but the onus is on us , the Canadian public , to ensure that these companies are not only building these pipelines in the right places , but also to the right standards .