Last Friday, B.C. energy minister Adrian Dix sent a letter to Western LNG, a Texas-based shell company funded by some of Donald Trump’s closest allies on Wall Street.
The letter offered a new loophole for the company’s proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project in Ts’msyen territory, on the border between B.C. and Alaska.
The terminal is designed to be built overseas, floated into place and hooked up to a transmission line, using electricity to power giant freezers to liquify fracked gas.
But there’s a problem. There is no high-voltage power line to the project site. It would take BC Hydro years and billions of dollars to build one.
So Dix is now telling the company it can use gas-fired compressors to power their LNG terminal, then switch over to electricity later if and when it becomes available.
That means if Ksi Lisims is built, it could add millions of tonnes to B.C.’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, indefinitely. Plus all the methane leaks and emissions from increased fracking.
All of that would come on top of emissions from the LNG Canada terminal, Woodfibre LNG, Cedar LNG and Tilbury LNG (if approved).
This is why the BC NDP government is calling its legislated climate targets “no longer accurate or workable”. It’s the province’s rush to expand fossil fuel exports that is driving up emissions.
Add in the impact of repealing the carbon tax, which has temporarily dropped prices for gasoline, diesel and FortisBC’s fossil gas.
Because of this sudden loss in revenue, Premier David Eby is now hinting that electric vehicle rebates and other parts of his CleanBC plan could be on the chopping block.
Faced with a nihilistic cabal of MAGA billionaires obsessed with fracking and burning more fossil fuels, the response from Eby and Dix is clear: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
For Ksi Lisims LNG to move forward, the B.C. government would need to revive this expired pipeline from 2014. The Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs are warning B.C. not to do it.
Secret government numbers reveal just how much strain the LNG industry could put on B.C.’s public power grid – and our bank accounts, as we pay for the Site C dam and more. -The Narwhal
Former BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau explains how low-income families will suffer from the province’s repeal of the carbon tax-and-rebate system. -The Tyee
If he’s elected, Liberal leader Mark Carney promises to put the federal government back to work building public housing. Will those homes run on electricity, or fossil gas?
Dogwood’s Molly Henderson explains Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s latest push for gas-powered AI data centres, and how this could kill Canadian jobs. -Youtube
President Trump decides not to fire his National Security Advisor. Find out why that’s great news for TC Energy, the “Canadian” pipeline company full of U.S. spies and Trump appointees.
Once again, Australian satirists do a better job of explaining the Canadian election than most news outlets in Canada. (Can you spot the shoutout to Dogwood?)
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An “elbows up” rally in Victoria tomorrow, Vancouver students host a climate strike, and seniors plan province-wide actions for Earth Day.Learn more...
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Tomorrow’s by-election in Vancouver could set the tone for climate action all over B.C. Find out who is running for city council. And if you’re in Vancouver, get out and vote!!
