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Premier David Eby should follow President Joe Biden’s lead on LNG
11/02/24
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Feb. 7, 2024
It’s important to consider LNG from an economic and energy security perspective, as the U.S. government is now doing
U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause an enormous liquefied natural gas project sets a new standard for governments considering fossil fuel development as the climate crisis intensifies. The Biden administration has directed the Department of Energy to put on hold the approval process for a massive LNG project in Louisiana and to emphasize climate, economic and energy security issues when considering LNG projects.
You would think at this point in the spiralling climate crisis, governments would take seriously the new global objectives agreed upon at the COP28 climate negotiations: The climate crisis is caused primarily by burning fossil fuels and the world must transition away from them if we are to have a livable planet. However, many governments around the world continue to support, approve and finance expansion of this lethal industry, even as we rack up one terrifying record after another: hottest year ever, warmest winter ever, most destructive wildfires ever.
Here in Canada, the British Columbia government is actively considering a massive expansion of the LNG export industry just as the Biden administration is pressing pause for all kinds of good reasons. This is despite the environmental, human rights and stranded asset risks associated with LNG development. What does Joe Biden know that David Eby doesn’t? With all due respect to the president, I don’t think he knows anything that Eby doesn’t. Widely respected for his hard work, intellectual curiosity and intelligence, the premier is well versed in the risks inherent in the LNG industry and the searing existential threat posed by the climate crisis. That he and his colleagues are willing to bet on the sunsetting fossil fuel industry in B.C. as the world transitions to renewable energy at a remarkable pace is truly mystifying.
As our peer-reviewed report, Burning Bridge — Debunking LNG as a Climate Solution demonstrated, LNG is not a climate solution and, in fact, may be much worse for the climate than coal when its full life cycle emissions are considered (also asserted in a recent study from Cornell University and referenced in a Dec. 26, 2023, report in the New York Times).
With no claim to climate benefits beyond those repeated in the echo chamber of oil and gas lobbyists and captive politicians, it’s important to consider LNG from an economic and energy security perspective, as the U.S. government is now doing.
The world’s leading authority on energy markets — the International Energy Agency — has repeatedly shown that markets for LNG will decline just as LNG from B.C. might make its way to Asia. Moreover, the IEA and many other respected industry analysts agree that the bottom will drop out of the LNG market if the world’s governments are serious about their much-touted net-zero intentions.
Finally, issues of economic security are top of mind for most of us as people in every corner of the country struggle with the affordability crisis. The major expansion of the LNG industry under consideration by Eby and his colleagues would make things worse for British Columbians. A fracking boom to feed LNG export plants would drive up the cost of gas for those who heat their homes and cook with it. And the billions of dollars in public financing (i.e., taxpayer dollars) that the big oil and gas lobby is pushing for would be a grave insult to those who are living stressful lives, one or two paycheques away from disaster.
It’s a rare thing to be cheered and inspired by politics south of the border these days. But Biden is proving that governments can still do wise things. Eby should follow the president’s lead and build on it: Pause, reflect and then walk away from LNG.
John Young is B.C. Energy Transition Strategist at the David Suzuki Foundation.
[Top photo: US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his administration's environmental efforts at the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center and Preserve in Palo Alto, California, on June 19, 2023. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) PHOTO BY ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS /AFP via Getty Images]
