LNG - Fracking

Almost six months after the B.C. government approved construction of the Site C dam, BC Hydro is still waiting for the province to issue the dozens of permits needed before shovels can touch the ground.

The permits have been held up because the province needs to conduct “meaningful consultation” with the Treaty 8 Tribal Association on the hydroelectric project.

This 3.5 min video interview with the long-serving President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs touches on the Petronas LNG proposal, opposition to the Site C Dam and being arrested on Burnaby Mountain protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Grand+Chief+Stewart+Phillip+explains+pow...

When one of Canada’s biggest energy companies recently came to Portland to build a new shipping terminal, the project looked like a done deal.

And then, virtually overnight, everything went wrong.

Last September, Pembina Pipeline, a Calgary-based energy transportation giant, announced plans to build a new propane export terminal at a Port of Portland site on the banks of the Columbia River. At the time, the project enjoyed the backing of myriad economic development groups, as well as Portland’s mayor.

. . . Seven major projects worth an estimated $9 billion – including an LNG facility, a gravel mine, an industrial waste energy plant, a ski resort, and housing developments for an estimated 10,000 new residents – are proposed on the shores of Howe Sound.

A new report on liquefied natural gas prospects for British Columbia challenges government claims that gas exports will lower greenhouse gas emissions, or generate $100 billion in profits for the province.

The report published today by David Hughes, one of Canada's foremost energy analysts and a former federal government geoscientist, also contends that the provincial government has vastly overestimated the amount of gas available for export.

B.C.’s liquefied natural gas industry threatens to harm the environment and erode Canada’s energy security, says a new analysis.

Geoscientist David Hughes, in a study for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, warns that LNG is far from the clean fuel that the B.C. government portrays it to be. Water filling the equivalent of nearly 22,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools a year would be required in the industry’s fracking process in drilling for natural gas in northeast British Columbia, he said.

Treaty 8 First Nations Astounded at PNW LNG MOU Signing

https://twitter.com/UBCIC/status/601739918692323328

The prospect of a liquefied natural gas industry in B.C. would be a game-changer for aboriginal communities, Premier Christy Clark said on Wednesday. But she sidestepped the question of what happens if some of those communities continue to say no to the developments.

Instead, Ms. Clark’s announcement about a major step along the path toward securing the Pacific NorthWest LNG plant – a proposal already rejected by the Lax Kw’alaams – left the door open to pushing the project through, despite the province’s preference to avoid a confrontation over aboriginal rights and title.

A senior aboriginal leader in British Columbia says First Nations will continue to oppose oil and gas developments in the province even if it means rejecting billion-dollar payouts – as long as environmental protections are not guaranteed.

A natural gas benefit offer worth more than $1 billion has been rejected by a First Nation on B.C.'s northwest coast, but not everyone thinks it will necessarily scuttle the project.

Pacific NorthWest LNG was proposing to build a pipeline and terminal in the Lax Kw'alaams Band territory just south of Prince Rupert.

Band members were asked to vote on a $1.15 billion offer over 40 years in exchange for their consent for the project.

The vote in Vancouver on Tuesday was the third in a series conducted by the First Nation that rejected the project.