EDITOR,
We had the stink from Woodfibre and FMC for years here in Squamish: "rotten eggs in comparison is like perfume." We suffered for many decades.
No more air pollution... if the "LNG dream plant has to be build in Woodfibre, a $500 million performance bond should be requested to meet this condition: "No smell from the process of creating LNG." I mean ZERO Smell and/or pollution!
The export of LNG should not take place before the Canadian market is looked after first, rather than selling our Canadian recourse of compressed natural gas (CNG) to the world, it should be available to any Canadian that wants or needs it. CNG is already here and could be a much-needed economic incentive for capital and jobs to come to Canada, besides lowering the cost of living for many of us.
The problem is that it is hard to get CNG at this time because the gas company is not too interested in creating the infrastructure needed to sell it to the Canadian consumer, it seems. They have a 100-year supply of CNG on hand, I was told by the company. Rather than selling it to the Canadian market to use that surplus, it seemed the decision was made to do more "fracking" (the injection of highly compressed substance of air and chemicals at around 9,000 psi, 300 times what a car tire pressure is) into the earth, to squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground and with it, get rid of the CNG on hand without creating more expensive infrastructure needed to sell it to the domestic market so badly in need of it. Smart move from a capitalistic business point, to make lots of money to their shareholders.
Since B.C. Hydro gave away the gas division years ago to the private company, the public has no access to some important facts. There is no disclosure mandate on a private company!
For those that don't know what is at stake, 5.4 GJ (GJ, the gas measurement of energy) to heat a home, or fuel our cars. Five-point-four GJ at around $4, plus taxes is about the present cost of 1 GJ of CNG is (less than $30 total, and is roughly equal to a barrel of crude oil at $98.77 a barrel, a real bargain. If one could consider at switch to it, for transportation and/or heat, tremendous cost saving and that at less pollution!
The problem right now is we can't get CNG into our fuel tanks, to fill up here in Squamish and many other places as well, with millions of GJ planned to pass through our valley, to be exported as LNG, after being converted to LNG at Woodfibre, with an uncertain effect on the air quality and ocean pollution.
Where does Squamish stand on this? What is Squamish getting out of this? The time to make submissions is quickly passing, with people at this time not to much interested in things other than happiness and good food, it seems.
Hans Schaer
Squamish
