Re: B.C. cabinet minister discusses energy issues with Nelson residents, March 26
B.C. Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Minister Josie Osborne was asked in Nelson why the province is developing fossil LNG infrastructure when other ways to produce energy are available. The minister responded that LNG project emissions will be capped and the industry will be temporary.
“This isn’t a long-term future,” she said. “We know we have to switch to clean energy, which is why we set up a clean energy and major projects office to facilitate biofuels and possibly hydrogen.”
As the minister knows, every LNG project proposed or in development is intended to operate for at least 30 years. As the world’s leading climate scientists keep telling us, this is the critical decade that will determine whether we have a livable planet or not.
A new report released by Clean Energy Canada on March 25 quantified the emissions that the six B.C. LNG projects would generate. They found that if all six projects were to proceed, they would emit 128.6 megatonnes of greenhouse gas pollution every year when burned in importing countries. That’s more than double B.C.’s annual emissions.
Taking the math and mapping it to a 30-year operating window, the six projects would create 3.9 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution from emissions in importing countries. That is not a typo: 3.9 billion tonnes.
As Minister Osborne also knows, the world’s leading authorities on energy markets and climate science have been saying, for years, that we cannot build any more fossil fuel infrastructure anywhere if we wish to have a livable planet. And yet, the B.C. government is actively considering a massive expansion of LNG fossil fuel development.
Locking in lethal emissions would profoundly affect our collective future, here in B.C. and around the world. It is a disastrous idea and the B.C. government should say no to oil and gas lobbyists who clutter their offices daily.
John Young
B.C. energy transition strategist, David Suzuki Foundation