cover image: BC COMMENTARY - Time to rethink BC’s LNG plans - By Ben Parfitt

BC COMMENTARY - Time to rethink BC’s LNG plans - By Ben Parfitt

26 Sep 2013

BC Hydro was told to rush ahead with those While the government looked to BC Hydro projects despite the lack of well-developed busi- management and even the NDP administration ness cases or public interest justification, and in the 1990s to blame for the current predic- despite the large number of priority investments ament, the nature and scope of the Liberal that BC Hydro had to make at the same. [...] Nor could BC Hydro recognize for the development losses over the next four years, based on BC the Burrard natural gas-fired thermal plant or Hydro’s own estimate of the average price of of a new IPP the electricity that the province receives under the energy it was forced to purchase and its industry in BC. [...] a number of proposed run-of-river hydro proj- In the meantime, Japan has offered $11 billion ects and, potentially, a third massive dam on the It sounds like the in loan guarantees to Japanese companies to Peace River that would flood thousands of hect- stage is being source LNG from the United States, a country ares of productive farmland in order — irony of currently awash in gas and offering As. [...] What would this do to the govern- zation, and the Council of Canadians subse- ment’s pre-election economic projections? Will quently sought standing before the tribunal, it be enough to entice the industry to invest which has yet to render a decision. [...] of climate action, From a scientific perspective, what matters large amounts of most is the world’s carbon budget — the total It is difficult to ascertain the exposure of amount of CO2 that can “safely” be emitted in Canadian pension funds to a carbon bubble.
Pages
8
Published in
Canada