North Coast LNG line will go ahead without environmental assessment.

Premier David Eby announced Tuesday evening that the province plans to amend legislation in order to place the North Coast Transmission Line entirely under the authority of the BC Energy Regulator, allowing the project to avoid an environmental assessment.

The North Coast Transmission Line is slated to run about 450 kilometres between Prince George and Terrace. It would deliver increased electrical capacity to B.C.’s northwest, in order to expand industries like mining and LNG production.

In B.C., developments like mines, pipelines and large infrastructure projects must undergo an environmental assessment, described by the province as “a comprehensive and rigorous process for reviewing major projects that could have significant negative and complex impacts.”

The environmental assessment process typically takes three to five years and occurs under the authority of the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office, an arm’s-length regulatory agency that reports to the Environment Ministry.

In its statement, the province described the BC Energy Regulator, which is funded by industry, as “a one-window regulator” and said that the planned legislative amendments will “leverage the BCER’s experience with linear infrastructure” in order to expedite the permitting, approval and construction of the power line.

Eby’s announcement, made at the BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, comes after a year of heavy lobbying by the LNG industry.

B.C.’s lobbyists registry shows that the Calgary-based company LNG Canada, a joint venture between Shell, Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas Corp., lobbied the provincial government more than two dozen times last year, most often related to climate policy, electrification and the province’s energy action framework, which requires new LNG facilities to be net zero by 2030.

On 17 occasions, the intended outcome from LNG Canada’s lobbying efforts was “the enactment of a regulation for the purposes of amending or repealing a regulation.” The lobbying included nine engagements with senior officials from the B.C. premier’s office.

LNG Canada recently completed an export terminal in Kitimat, which will process gas from the Coastal GasLink pipeline. It is set to come online this year. The company is also permitted to build a second phase, which would double the facility’s capacity, but has not made a decision on whether to proceed with the expansion.

In order to align with B.C.’s climate objectives, any new LNG development in the province needs to be powered by electricity. While emissions from liquefied gas exported and burned overseas don’t count toward B.C.’s carbon footprint, the energy-intensive process used to liquefy the product does.

LNG Canada’s first phase, which will use gas-powered turbines for its liquefaction process, will put a significant dent in B.C.’s carbon budget, equalling about five per cent of the province’s current annual emissions. The industry is now looking to B.C.’s hydroelectric power grid, which is mostly renewable energy, for future expansion.

When The Tyee asked whether LNG Canada had pushed government to streamline approvals for the new transmission line, LNG Canada vice-president of corporate relations Teresa Waddington said the company is “supportive of efforts underway to advance electrification” in B.C.

“We are encouraged that both our provincial and federal governments have emphasized the need to identify opportunities to increase and enhance electric power generation, infrastructure and capacities, with actions to help expedite those efforts,” Waddington wrote in an email to The Tyee.

Waddington added that the company sees itself “alongside many industries and communities in B.C. seeking ways to lower emissions” and is working with governments and First Nations on electrical infrastructure “to meet growing industrial, commercial and consumer needs.”

In announcing its plans to expedite the power project’s permits, B.C. made no mention of community or consumer electricity needs in the northwest. Instead, the joint statement from the Energy Ministry and the premier’s office focused on “urgently” needed infrastructure to support industrial expansion.

“If the NCTL is not built, and built quickly, major critical minerals, future port expansions, and LNG, hydrogen and other important resource projects may not proceed,” Energy Minister Adrian Dix said in the statement. “We need to move this vital project forward to realize B.C.’s resource-development potential and create jobs and investment opportunities, while achieving provincial climate targets.”

Last year, Premier Eby told Bloomberg News that the province was in discussions with LNG Canada about how to cut emissions from the planned expansion of its export facility in Kitimat. Eby suggested that LNG Canada could double its capacity while B.C. remained on target to meet its climate goals.

“We’ve made some pretty clear commitments around driving down emissions in the province, and we’re at a table with them about how we can try to achieve both of our goals,” Eby told the U.S. news outlet. “From their perspective, ensuring that reliable, low-carbon energy and, from our perspective, all the emissions not showing up on B.C.’s books as the main producer.”

The Tyee has made multiple requests to the premier’s office for an interview with Eby on the topic, but one has not been provided.

Lobbying records

North Coast Transmission Line would also provide power to the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG terminal, which is currently going through its own environmental assessment process. The facility, located in Nisg̱a’a Nation territory, would receive gas from the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line, which is currently fighting to keep its environmental assessment certificate after the permit expired last fall. Both projects are co-owned by the Nisg̱a’a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG.

B.C.’s environmental approvals have become more stringent over the past decade, first with a new Environmental Assessment Act in 2018 and, the following year, with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

B.C.’s lobbying records show that the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government lobbied the province three times last year over regulatory approvals and the need for an “electrical transmission line connecting the Ksi Lisims LNG project to the BC Hydro grid.”

The nation’s business partner, Western LNG, logged 37 entries almost entirely related to climate policy, electrification and legislation development. The company also frequently lobbied about regulatory approvals for the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line.

The Tyee reached out to Ksi Lisims LNG for comment but did not receive a response prior to deadline.

Naxginkw Tara Marsden is wilp sustainability director for the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, a First Nation neighbouring the Nisg̱a’a that opposes the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission line through its traditional territory.

She said that while there is demand for increased hydroelectric power in the northwest, B.C. has prioritized big industry over smaller, locally owned projects.

“This announcement definitely is more closely linked to LNG than other industries,” Marsden said, adding that Gitanyow has been asking the province for years to supply power for a small forestry project the nation is proposing, but only recently received a response.

“The larger mines, the LNG projects, are huge consumers of electricity, and I think the government is trying to facilitate those needs over other, smaller, more sustainable developments in our region,” she said.

While the North Coast Transmission Line wouldn’t cross Gitanyow territory, the province has been consulting the nation on the spur that would be required to connect it to the Ksi Lisims LNG project. Marsden said the “high bar of consultation” required for an environmental assessment for the power line will be lost if the project is entirely permitted under the BC Energy Regulator.

“The BC Energy Regulator is really known to be industry regulating itself,” Marsden said.

“It’s a rubber stamp entity,” Marsden added. “It does not effectively represent public and Indigenous values, and scientific rigour, in its decision-making processes.”

The nation is asking the province for a full cost accounting of the climate impacts from LNG development in the region, Marsden said. She called B.C.’s plans to sidestep a more rigorous environmental assessment “highly irresponsible.”

Shannon McPhail, co-executive director with the northwest B.C.-based Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, said BC Energy Regulator’s close relationship with industry “does not bode well for the integrity of the process [and] trust in government.”

“It does seem that our provincial government is turning themselves inside out to assure more LNG development happens despite the cost to taxpayers and unanswered questions about prioritizing the use of that power,” McPhail said.

“LNG Canada and Ksi Lisims will use far more power than Site C dam produces,” she said. “If we’re going to build all this infrastructure for better power supply, why is it being fully consumed by LNG instead of the rest of British Columbia?”

Questions to both the premier’s office and the Energy Ministry about how much influence the LNG industry had over the decision did not receive a response prior to deadline