Some wise citizen common sense:
Brenda Guiled
A footnote to the LNG industry is that ships carrying it are floating bombs, massive bombs. Getting them to explode will take something like a missile strike — we hope they won’t blow from grounding, ramming, unsuspected stress points, poor construction, etc. — but in our nutty world, it’s easy to imagine various scenarios by which such great fireworks can happen.
If B.C. were building bombs, by that name, it seems likely there would be a lot more safeguards in place than are put on the shipping industry.
Nielle Hawkwood
The same problem exists in Alberta, where fracking is a word seldom heard, but is everywhere.
Langley man questions Liberal’s green policy after fracking funding, The money could be better [spent on public transit], he writes Letter to the Editor by Bill Masse, Langley, Sept. 21, 2019, Aldergrove Star
Dear Editor,
It has recently been announced that the federal Liberals and the BC NDP will be giving $660 million to the B.C. gas fracking industry to electrify their operations.
This will reduce their carbon emissions of course but it is still lunacy. Already these mostly foreign corporations are taking our gas without paying any royalties because of generous tax deferrals handed out by the B.C. Liberals and continued by the NDP. They should be required to electrify their operations at their own expense and if they don’t like that they can go somewhere else. If we are treating the climate crisis seriously we should not be subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Furthermore, If there is $660 Million of public money kicking around, how about investing in the the future, perhaps to improve public transit, instead of propping up a sunset industry.
Why Oil Giants Aren’t Excited About E-Fracking by Tsvetana Paraskova, Sept. 15, 2019, Oilprice
Drillers in the U.S. shale patch are continuously looking to save costs as they want to squeeze higher margins and profits. …
A new tech for powering frac fleets could solve both problems for upstream companies, but for the frac fleet providers—the oilfield services firms—the move to electric fracking equipment incurs hefty costs that cannot be justified in the current market of drilling slowdown, analysts and executives say. …
In British Columbia, critics see a push to greenwash natural gas by Alastair Sharp, September 11, 2019, National Observer
On a sunny day in late August, Justin Trudeau and John Horgan posed for photographs at a hydro-electricity training site in Surrey, B.C., just outside of Vancouver.
The prime minister of Canada and the premier of British Columbia were there to congratulate each other on an agreement to provide a combined $680 million to help the province’s natural gas industry switch to using electricity to power its operations.
… Most of the province’s existing wells lean heavily on hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. fracking, to extract oil and gas from massive shale deposits in the Montney basin in northeastern B.C.
… None of this was mentioned in the memorandum of understanding the two governments signed last month.
“It was so Orwellian. They do not even mention it is fracking,” Jens Wieting, a senior forest and climate campaigner with conservation group Sierra Club BC, said of the dual news releases that accompanied the memo.
Instead, government and industry present liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is gas that has been cooled to liquid form for storage and transport, as a suitable transition fuel between the dirty coal of the past and the clean renewables of the future. [Industry’s “bridge to clean” lie was blown sky high years ago]
The federal government itself has kicked in $275 million towards the giant, $40-billion LNG Canada project, in Kitimat, B.C., for example.
“By moving to clean power — a process referred to as electrification — we will avoid emissions and position Canada as a supplier of the world’s cleanest natural gas,” Trudeau’s office said in its statement on Aug. 29.
***
Reality Check:
It’s impossible to “avoid” emissions.
Cleanest in the world, like this?
Annie_fiftyseven comment to an article by Andrew Nikiforuk in The Tyee:
End Reality Check.
Later this month, a delegation will visit Tokyo to pitch the compelling economics of Canada’s LNG infrastructure projects and supply agreements, as well as brief business and government officials about Asian import and investment opportunities. [And heaps of jobs for workers overseas!]
… “Countries are looking for the cleanest natural gas to displace coal, and Canada can be that choice — all while reducing emissions and creating well-paying jobs at home,” Alana Kiteley said. [Pffft! Most of the jobs will be in China and for cheap temporary foreign workers with zip for rights, and expensive safety protections and benefits like Canadian workers demand and expect!]
She said Canadian resource development was being addressed in connection with a national plan to fight climate change, including by creating methane regulations, a clean fuel standard, a price on carbon pollution and other measures.
“Canadians expect our resources to be developed in a way that ensures economic growth and environmental protections go hand-in-hand,” she said. [Impossible to do both]
The government passed regulations that aim to cut methane emissions from the oil and gas sector 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025. [which will be far too late for many species, likely including humans] That will cut 232 megatonnes of carbon pollution through 2035, it estimated. But the rules are being phased in over several years.
[Rgardless of whether the Encana/CAPP/Harper/Koch/Sheer/May complex or Encana/CAPP/Trudeau/Koch complex or Encana/CAPP/Koch/Singh complex win the fed election, oil and gas industry will only allow massive deregulation to enable more and more emissions while politicians lie to the public more and more (frac’ing and LNG are heavily polluting industries, regardless of whether they are electrified or not). Industry will not let any govt do it any other way]
Kiteley did not directly respond to questions about actions being taken to determine the true emissions profile of the province’s existing LNG and fracking industries, or ensure issues with leakage are not repeated in new projects, saying that was a provincial responsibility. [Which the feds know full well provinces from coast to coast to coast are ignoring, or lying about, or deregulating to enable ever increasing emissions, harms and pollution]
A spokesperson for the provincial Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources did not respond to questions before publication.
‘Not a single dollar can be misused’
The new funds will initially advance electrification of projects including the Bear Mountain to Dawson Creek voltage conversion and the North Montney Power Supply project.
But Wieting argued LNG will prove to be “very likely as bad as coal” for a heating planet, and there is no room to boost its expansion if humanity is to avert the worst effects of the global climate crisis.
“Making no mistakes means that every public dollar spent on energy projects must be in the context of efficiency, renewable energy,” he said in a phone interview. “And not a single dollar can be misused to continue to expand fossil fuels production.”
An image from a Sierra Club B.C. report shows how large a carbon footprint the planned LNG Canada project will have.
… The shift to a low-carbon economy is already “underway” and sectors like oil and gas, as well as the banks that loan money to them, are exposed to risks from climate change that could spill over into destabilizing “fire sales,” the Bank of Canada concluded in May. …
Ottawa, B.C. to push electrification of gas industry to cut carbon emissions by The Canadian Press, August 29, 2019, National Post
SURREY, B.C. — The federal and British Columbia governments want to power the production of the natural gas industry in the province using electricity.
As part of an agreement announced Thursday, the two governments and BC Hydro are forming a committee to push projects that increase power transmission.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the agreement is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions [Bullshit!] from the natural gas industry, which produces about 18 per cent of the carbon pollution in the province.
“We’re taking another major step forward in the fight against climate change,” he said, adding that electrification will also create jobs. [Quadruple Bullshit!]
B.C. Premier John Horgan joined Trudeau in making the announcement at a BC Hydro training centre in Surrey, saying the two governments are working to make the economy more environmentally sustainable.
Horgan said the agreement also takes advantage of BC Hydro’s ability to provide clean energy for industry in the province. [There’s nothing clean about Site C Dam energy!~]
“Our governments are working collaboratively to electrify industries and reduce emissions as we put B.C. on a path to a cleaner, better future,” he said in a statement.
[It’s got nothing to do with reducing emissions. Emissions will dramatically increase with Site C giving free energy to feed fracing and LNG. What it’s really about is just another way for governments to steal from ordinary Canadians to give to rich multinationals and foreign investors]
Environmental groups have criticized Horgan’s NDP government for its backing of the liquefied natural gas industry in B.C., arguing changes to the province’s tax structure and subsidies are helping a sector that increases carbon pollution.
The federal and provincial governments have boosted LNG Canada’s plans for a $40-billion project in Kitimat, which is expected to create 10,000 construction jobs and up to 950 permanent positions in the processing terminal on the coast of B.C. [Pffft! Much of the work will be done in China, fabricating structures there to install here, giving jobs to citizens in other countries and creating shipping pollution too]
Trudeau said Thursday’s agreement builds on that project.
The three-page agreement says $680 million in “near-term” electrification projects are being considered for possible funding.
B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver said the deal and the province’s financial commitment to it is a further subsidization of fossil fuel development, including for projects that have not yet been built.
“The NDP government is not only providing more subsidies for the growth of the fossil fuel sector but are also neglecting their responsibility to this province to be making the investments for an alternative future,” he said in a news release.
Weaver said he supports the electrification of industry, but it must go beyond providing help for the gas sector. [Shows us what a phony Weaver is]
“British Columbians are looking for leadership that is investing in their future by supporting the industries of tomorrow, not the dinosaurs of yesterday.”
Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, said in a statement that the agreement delivers a critical component to B.C.’s climate plan.
“Electrification is the thread that ties all climate efforts together. Powering our cars, our homes and our industries with clean electricity is the only sustainable path forward.”
Quebec Minister of the Environment wants to encourage LNG to be “a green project” by Flavie Villeneuve, September 16, 2019, ici.radio-Canada
[WATCH PROVINCES ACROSS THE COUNTRY COPY BC’S “REDUCE EMISSIONS” HANKY PANKY POWER PIMPING PLAN THAT WILL ONLY INCREASE EMISSIONS!]
translation below by Google Translate:
The Minister of the Environment and the fight against climate change, Benoit Charette, confirmed his position in favor of the LNG Quebec project. … The government is holding this extensive consultation to present its new Electrification and Climate Change Plan in early 2020.
The minister reminded that analyzes and consultations are still ongoing on LNG liquefied natural gasQuebec and that this project must be encouraged so that it is as green as possible. [Refer to comments in square brackets above for a bit of reality]
Benoit Charette also pointed out that it is better to produce liquefied gas in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean in strict environmental standards rather than allowing other, more polluting countries to produce it . … The Legault government’s goal is to put in place a national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 37% within 10 years . …
Refer also to: