If anyone wondered where the sizzle over B.C’s 19 LNG projects went, consider the seismic shifts in global natural gas trade.
Even if a B.C. LNG proponent is able to successfully navigate Canada’s regulatory maze and accepts Canada’s track record of megaproject cost overruns and works through its formidable aboriginal consulting requirements and then does this all over again to build a connecting pipeline, it still needs to factor in a forecasted 45 per cent leap in global liquefaction supply over the next five years, leaving demand growth far behind.
In December 2015, Canada joined 176 other countries to sign the Paris Agreement. By doing so, Canada has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 (a minimum reduction that must be revisited according to the terms of the agreement). Environment Canada’s latest projections show that under existing energy and climate policies, emissions will be 55 per cent above the Paris Agreement target in 2030, which means that Canada has some serious work to do to fulfill its commitment.
“We are ready for them,” said Tina Louise Rothery. “It has been a long battle but we have been ready for a confrontation for a long time.”
Rothery is one of a growing group of women at the forefront of opposition to fracking. Of the 250 anti-fracking community groups that have sprung up in Britain in the past few years, very many are led, or strongly backed, by women, who say they have been outraged at plans to risk people’s health by exploiting the countryside for shale gas.
VANCOUVER - Some of the world's leading experts on climate change - including former NASA scientist James Hansen, and Tim Flannery, chief councilor of Australia's Climate Commission and a world expert on climate change - have called on the Trudeau government to reject a massive liquefied natural gas project proposed for the Skeena region of Northern British Columbia.
May 27, 2016 - The New Brunswick government has extended for an indefinite period its ban on hydraulic fracturing, saying the jury is still out on the risks to public health and environment from the controversial practice.
[A 2012 article that discusses lax oversight and uncertain science about industries who dump trillions of gallons of waste underground.]
Photo: A class 2 brine disposal well in western Louisiana near the Texas border. The well sat by the side of the road, without restricted access. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
May 26, 2016 - Two major fires have burned huge swaths of forest through the heart of the oil and gas patch in northeast British Columbia and northwest Alberta without causing any damage to infrastructure.
Pipelines, compressor stations, tank farms and active wells – all processing highly flammable hydrocarbons – have at times been surrounded by the huge fires, which have destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest north of Fort St. John.
Tuesday, May 17 - In the spring of 2015, B.C. Premier Christy Clark challenged jurisdictions around the world to meet or beat her province’s world-leading climate action plan. Now her government is wrestling with rising CO2 levels while Alberta and Ontario have moved aggressively to reduce their provincial greenhouse gas emissions.
