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.
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.
