LNG - Fracking

Internal B.C. government documents warn that the pursuit of a liquefied natural gas industry could double the province’s entire output of greenhouse-gas emissions – at a time that it’s struggling to meet its legislated targets to dramatically reduce GHGs. A cabinet document prepared for Environment Minister Mary Polak in June calculates the LNG sector could increase emissions by 16 per cent at a minimum, and as much as “a doubling of B.C.’s total emissions, depending on the number of plants and the technology and energy options chosen,” the document states.

VICTORIA – Like the underground shale gas that Premier Christy Clark says will pave the way to a debt-free future, British Columbia appears caught between a rock and a hard place in balancing its hunger for a burgeoning liquefied natural gas industry and meeting its ambitious 2007 greenhouse gas pollution-reduction targets.

 VICTORIA -- Some of British Columbia's most powerful labour leaders are pledging to work with Premier Christy Clark's Liberal government and the energy industry to help thousands of B.C. workers land jobs in what could be the province's multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas industry. B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair and B.C. Building Trades Council executive director Tom Sigurdson emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday with Clark saying jobs trump politics when it comes to developing and securing B.C.'s LNG opportunity.

A human chain spanned Manhattan’s West Side Highway. The group carried a highway-wide yellow banner that proclaimed, “Stop the Pipeline” and sang the old civil rights anthem, “Which Side Are You On?” This act of peaceful civil disobedience last Saturday stopped traffic on the three-lane highway and resulted in 13 arrests, enacted in an orderly and non-violent fashion by both the protesters and the NYC police. A white-haired woman in a wheelchair was among those handcuffed and transported to a nearby police station for booking.

The B.C. government is sitting on a report commissioned by its climate-action secretariat that measures the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with developing a liquefied natural-gas industry. The pursuit of LNG is Christy Clark’s central ambition as Premier but it is one that is widely expected to collide with the province’s legislated requirement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. So far, her government has sidestepped questions about how former premier Gordon Campbell’s legacy on climate change will be reshaped to accommodate Ms. Clark’s agenda around resource development.

According to lobbyist registry data, there are currently 57 lobbyists representing the natural gas industry to elected officials and government agencies in the province of British Columbia. This is a pretty astounding number when you consider that the provincial government only consists of 85 elected representatives. British Columbia, Canada is where I grew up and it is a place of natural beauty, in fact the main city of Vancouver is commonly cited as one of the most liveable cities in the world.

VICTORIA ­ As political protests go, the anti-fracking display at Premier Christy Clark’s house on the weekend was small-scale and short-lived. A dozen or so protesters put up a mock drill rig on her front lawn on Sunday morning and removed it soon afterward when asked to do so by police. Still, the episode had larger implications for both of B.C.’s major political parties. For the B.C. Liberals, the ill-advised trespass on the premier’s home turf generated sympathy more than any backlash over the widespread use of fracking to unlock the province’s natural gas reserves.

Premier Christy Clark said she’s excited about a proposal to modernize and expand port facilities in Port Alberni, which could include a new deep sea shipping terminal and a liquefied natural gas facility.

Clark said there’s been significant international interest in a Port Alberni LNG facility, which could be a huge job generator for the community. The premier has invited Port Alberni Port Authority to accompany her on a trade mission to Asia next month.

VANCOUVER, UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY – On Sunday morning, activists with Rising Tide-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories set up a 15-foot mock fracking rig on Premier Christy Clark’s lawn and announced that “Because the Premier loves fracking, we figured we would save her the hassle of trying to take over other peoples’ homes and bring it right to her!” says Jacquelyn Fraser, an activist with the group. “We are just so worried about all the water that is being used and polluted in northeastern B.C. for fracking.

Carbon Talks brought together three experts at the lunch hour on Wednesday to discuss the business case for exporting LNG from B.C. Part of that business case is environmental: the assertion that LNG will be good for global emissions. Dr. Kathryn Harrison, professor of political science at UBC, suggested that climate change is an elephant in the room, a party animal when it suits industry needs or, perhaps, “a large beast with the potential to wreak havoc.”