In my May 10, 2012 blog I noted that I didn’t think the LNG goals being touted by the BC Liberals were realistic. Although I didn’t go into all my reasons, I note in general that we are not ready to expand quickly enough to achieve what is being presented. Primarily, we do not have the infrastructure in place, nor has the government presented any plan for how we would create that infrastructure.
It comes as no surprise to me that we now have an announcement that Natural Gas is being redefined to be clean energy. Our BC Clean Energy Act requires 93% of our energy to be clean.
There was no way we could power the LNG plants from our existing grid. For them to work, they must be self sufficient by creating the vast amount of electricity they require from a portion of the natural gas they are buying. This would not be legal under the existing Clean Energy Act unless the natural gas they use was exempted from the Act. To do that, it must be determined to be a clean source. So we are creating a new category. Basically, dirty energy is clean if it will replace even dirtier energy.
I believe this must have been the plan since the beginning as I don’t want to believe that the governance of our province is in the hands of people who didn’t think about how to power a plant before deciding to build a set of them.
I am not opposed to the logic of the change. If we really are enabling China or Japan to stop burning wood and coal and use LNG then we should be able to justify LNG as a transitional energy source. I am completely in favour of finding ways to make smooth transitions to cleaner energy. However, I would argue that the way this is being done is not above board. If we truly want to use that logic, we should re-examine the Clean Energy Act and correct it so that we have a clear definition of transitional energy and how we will measure it. We don’t need more slight-of-hand politics to avoid thought-through, debated legislation.
And while we are thinking about the infrastructure needed for the LNG industry we are being promised, have we really considered how we will deal with the growth in other areas. The BC Liberals are promising 1 million new jobs with six or seven hundred thousand immigrant families to help staff them. In her heart, Christy Clark would see our province grow around 25% in a decade. What about housing, police, schools (including significantly more assistance for non-English speaking students and ESL for adult students), hospitals, roads. Is there a plan to manage the growth or not? Or will it just come out when the government thinks the public needs to know?
