Jun 20, 2011
On Voice of BC Thursday, June 9, 2011, John Horgan said he and the NDP caucus support the expanding natural gas extraction from north east BC, building a pipeline to transport the gas to Kitimat or Prince Rupert, building a liquefication plant at the pipeline terminus and transporting the liquefied natural gas (LNG) in tankers to Asia where the price the companies get is four times the North American price. He said LNG tankers are okay – that gas is light unlike oil which is heavy and sticky. He was clearly distinguishing such a project from the Enbridge pipeline that would bring bitumen from the Alberta Tar Sands to Kitimat which the NDP seems to oppose.
I find it astonishing that every member of the NDP caucus supports such a policy. After all, at their convention in 2009, several NDP MLAs pushed through a resolution reaffirming the NDP’s policy on climate change which had been passed in 2007. The 2009 resolution was needed because the NDP did not campaign on their climate change policy in the 2009 election. Specifically, their “axe the tax” campaign against the provincial carbon tax was directly contrary to the 2007 policy.
Climate change is an ever increasing concern. At some point in time, we have to move to a low carbon economy. If we are serious, that means that we would be planning for how to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Instead, we behave as if we can accelerate the extraction and burning of fossil fuels with no consequences. It doesn’t matter where the fuels are burned. There is only one planet. The greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are generated in China from coal, gas and oil extracted in BC or Canada are still part of the global accounting that is putting us on an increasingly perilous course.
There isn’t even a good business case for the way we are staking more and more of the future of our economy on fossil fuels. I understand the contribution that gas makes to government revenue in BC. That needs to be part of the equation as we plan for a post carbon future. We need to replace that revenue as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Using natural gas as a fuel to help make the transition is critical. That means preserving the resource. It can only increase in value over time and with fair royalties, the change in revenue could be managed effectively.
But in BC, we treat our natural resources like a business in liquidation would. Extract as much as we can as fast as we can. Get rid of them now at fire-sale prices.
BC has 100 years worth of natural gas – with the belief that more will be found. Therefore, there is an assumption that expanding the industry is manageable and justifiable. That might be good thinking if global warming wasn’t a risk. One hundred years is only three generations – my grandsons’ grandkids.
It is one thing to be aware that the price companies can get for the natural gas in Asia is three to four times what they can get in North American. It is the companies that benefit, however, not to government revenue and the people of BC except as a result of volume increases. The royalties charged those same companies by the BC government remain arbitrarily low. In addition, the taxpayers of BC pay for infrastructure that allows those same companies to keep their costs down so they can make even more profit. On the previous week’s VOBC, Rich Coleman acknowledged that the power from the proposed Site C dam on the Peace River will be transmitted to the Horne River basin for use by the gas extracting industry. We pay, they benefit.
NDP leader Adrian Dix (also on VOBC) bragged that it was under the NDP government that the natural gas industry got started. As if that means we don’t need to rethink how the industry has developed and where it is going. As well, such cheerleading avoids addressing the questions being raised about fracking – the method that is used to get the natural gas out of the shale where it is embedded.
Independent MLA Bob Simpson, a former member of the NDP caucus put forward a proposal that an all party committee be struck to look into the implications of the gas fracking process on the environment. There is evidence that fracking damages fresh water (ground and surface) and that the toxic chemicals that are used and waste water that is created are detrimental to the environment. Several North American jurisdictions including Quebec and many places worldwide are putting a moratorium on natural gas extraction by fracking. What do they know that we ignore?
I find the giving of seemingly unqualified support to increasing natural gas extraction, pipelines and tankers by the NDP quite disturbing, especially given what we know about climate change. We need politicians challenging the belief that development at all costs is acceptable and that damage to our environment is benign or a necessary part of the economy.
The current political climate is a tragedy and public policy that deliberately accelerates climate change is, in my opinion, a crime against future generations. We will continue on our destructive path until enough people with integrity who will insist on change become our politicians and the government.
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