LNG - Fracking

Chief Sharleen Gale Ft Nelson First nation asks the Province of BC to leave the LNG Forum and also asks Industry to do the same in Ft Nelson. This is in response to Christy Clark government announcement of removing LNG Plants from Environmentl Screening process all the while they say they seek a new relationship with First nations based on respect and mutual goals.

The way to beat Vladimir Putin is to flood the European market with fracked-in-the-USA natural gas, or so the industry would have us believe. As part of escalating anti-Russian hysteria, two bills have been introduced into the US Congress – one in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6), one in the Senate (S.

In an increasingly explosive political climate in the Kitimat area over a controversial vote on the Northern Gateway pipeline, the Mayor of Kitimat was flash mobbed by a group of mostly First Nations people, donning "No Enbridge" shirts at a Haisla girls basketball championship on Sunday. "No Enbridge!  No Enbridge!  No Enbridge!" yelled the packed gymnasium crowd, nearly all wearing black protest shirts. "When you're in politics for 36 years, I guess I kind of expected it," Mayor Joanne Monaghan told the Vancouver Observer Wednesday.

When labour leader Jim Sinclair turned up at the legislature last week for release of the workforce plan for the liquefied natural gas industry, I teased him that he’s being seen around the halls of government more often than when the New Democratic Party was in power. Sinclair, the longtime president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, took it with good humour, reminding me of the joke about his predecessor Ken Georgetti — that he had an actual seat at the cabinet table in the NDP government.

The Metlakatla and Lax Kw'alaams First Nations have reached an LNG revenue sharing agreement with the provincial government. The deal, announced today by Premier Christy Clark, provide the two First nations with a portion of provincial government revenues from the sole proponent agreements reached fo projects at Grassy Point proposed by Aurora LNG and Woodside LNG. In signing the agreements, both the Metlakatla and Lax Kw'alaams "signal their support for co-operating in respect of prospective LNG development at Grassy Point", reads a media advisory from the province.

Cumulative impact is something the B.C. government does not like to talk about when consulting First Nations about resource developments. Government prefers to look at projects in isolation. So, Site C on the Peace River, for example, is assessed on its own, not in the context of all the oil-and-gas activity taking place in the region. That is not how native communities see things. To them, the question is not only what impact an individual project will have – but also what it will mean alongside all the other industrial activities in an area.

The B.C. Liberal government won’t win any forecasting awards for its predictions on natural-gas revenues. Two years ago, the province estimated that royalties from this fuel would reach $846 million in this fiscal year. In Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s recent budget, that was cut nearly in half, to $441 million. Three years ago, the spring budget pegged revenues from natural-gas royalties at $447 million. As that fiscal year ended, that figure was reduced to $367 million.

The fracking boom has progressed at breakneck speed across the U.S., with roughly one in 20 Americans now living within a mile of a well drilled since 2000. So, how much has the economy benefitted from this drilling surge? Not much, according to a report presented to the European Union Parliament last month, which found "no evidence that shale gas is driving an overall manufacturing renaissance in the US.”

America’s oil and natural gas revolution is running into new public opposition to hydraulic fracturing that could slow development unless the industry gets a better handle on the environmental challenges. The battle is currently focused on Colorado, where activists are attempting to have a referendum this fall that would allow local municipalities to ban hydraulic fracturing – or fracking, as it is known.

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.