No one following the media coverage prior to the last provincial election could have overlooked the speculative nature of B.C. Liberal promises on liquefied natural gas. “When the gruel is this thin, fantasy looks like a good alternative: Liberals throne speech focused on dreams of riches from unbuilt LNG plants,” read one headline in this newspaper. “Fantasy gas fund built on shifting sands: putting faith in LNG is like counting your chickens before they hatch — or banking on a future that may never arrive,” read another.
When a tight oil boom invaded rural Alberta five years ago, Diana Daunheimer was, as she puts it, just another "ignorant landowner." The mother of two and vegetable farmer knew little about the practice of horizontal drilling or multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. The practice involves the injection of highly pressurized fluids into mile deep wells that later mole out horizontally for another mile or two, in order to break open shale rock as tight as granite.
One glaring problem with the provincial government’s strategy to turn B.C. into a LNG-exporting juggernaut is that it scuttles any chance B.C. has to be a climate-change leader. But equally problematic is how our government’s economically dubious fixation with liquefied natural gas exports jeopardizes our irreplaceable water resources. In Alberta as well as numerous U.S. states where natural gas companies operate, there is a growing public backlash against industry operations.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark plugged her vision for an economy fuelled by liquefied natural gas during a speech Thursday to California's senate. Clark told senators that exporting LNG, which she described as the cleanest fossil fuel, to Asia would create jobs, investment opportunities and eliminate the debt in her province. She said the LNG industry will be the biggest step B.C. has taken to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and growing its economy responsibly.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued an alert Thursday that the rig operator, Louisiana-based EnVen, had lost control of the well, allowing the flow of natural gas.
The company seeking to build the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has had a massive explosion on its decades-old natural gas pipeline in southern Manitoba. The rupture of the TransCanada PipeLines (TCPL) gas line occurred in the middle of the night on Saturday, January 25 near the village of Otterburne. A massive fireball erupted into the night sky and burned for many hours.
The closing remarks to a federal-provincial panel examining BC Hydro’s Site C proposal were made by a grey-haired native leader who said bands in the area are determined not to let the dam get built. Treaty 8 Tribal Chief Liz Logan told the Joint Review Panel, which wrapped up five weeks of public hearings on Friday, that Peace River native communities hope a treaty they signed over 100 years ago to protect their way of life will be honoured and the dam, which would flood more than 5,000 hectares in the valley, will not be allowed.
In Alberta, Ronalie and Shawn Campbell’s previously excellent well water is now saturated with methane, ethane, propane, butane and isobutane. The trees flanking their well – which is surrounded by over 50 energy wells within a one mile radius – have died. Jessica Ernst is heavy-lifting a $33 million lawsuit against Encana /Alberta Environment / and the Energy Resources Conservation Board. Her skin burns and develops rash when she showers. Not that she can do that anymore. But she can light her water on fire.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Friday, a move that will allow the parched state to seek federal aid as it grapples with what could turn out to be the driest year in recorded state history for many areas.
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"As we see other sectors, like agriculture, struggling, what water rights do oil companies have to engage in fracking? The case can be made to place a moratorium on fracking just in the interests of conserving water," said California Assembly member Mark Levine.
"Water is our most precious commodity, not oil," he said.
This month, provincial MLAs are preparing for the upcoming legislative session, in which they will debate rules for carbon pollution and taxes for liquefied natural gas (LNG) development. The connection between LNG development and carbon pollution is significant. And just how the government chooses to manage both issues will have serious long-term implications, for the province and the country. Last year, Minister of Natural Gas Development Rich Coleman was asked on CBC's Early Edition what B.C.'s LNG plans could mean for the province's climate targets.
