How can B.C. meet its greenhouse emissions targets and simultaneously put all its chips on an LNG (liquefied natural gas) economy? The provincial government is asking for public input before Aug. 17 on the 2015 Climate Leadership Plan, B.C.’s roadmap to 2050. The discussion paper opens with a chart of B.C. environmental change since 1900. If you haven’t noticed that the weather’s not the same as it was when you were a kid, it’s an eye-opener.
See it at: http://engage.gov.bc.ca/climateleadership/
It’s the chart showing B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide that precipitated my head-scratching moment because it raises a contentious question in B.C.’s fracking and LNG industry. Where’s the methane? Burning natural gas, which is mostly methane, produces less CO2 than oil or coal. But when methane is released into the atmosphere, it’s a potent greenhouse gas with warming potential of up to 84 times greater than CO2 over 20 years, according to Cornell biogeochemist Robert Howarth’s research. Methane is released due to leaks at the wellhead, along the pipeline, at LNG cooling plants and during transfer to and from ships. Unregulated, these methane emissions could quickly offset any benefit of using natural gas to reduce CO2 emissions.
In the policy world, what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get regulated. If LNG is B.C.’s energy plan, then measuring and regulating methane emissions has to be in the climate action plan.
The plan presents a serious effort to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, identifying transportation options, localized production, energy efficiencies, and carbon pricing as strategies. But it also positions LNG as a “bridge” to a low-carbon energy future. I tried to imagine such a future using Woodfibre LNG as a case study.
Located mostly on First Nations territories, copious freshwater is used for fracking natural gas and leaking methane. Chemical-laden effluent pours into toxic ponds contaminating wildlife foodchains and poisoning downstream water. Methane-leaking pipelines could transport gas to LNG plants. It’s cooled into LNG using taxpayer-subsidized hydro electricity and shipped on supertankers that will thread through Howe Sound, compromising ferry lanes and tugboat routes in order to feed a globalized economy. Is Woodfibre LNG the bridge to our low-carbon future or B.C.’s icon for a global warming supply chain?
Let’s all complete the survey. We can tell them that methane emission reduction targets must be embedded in the Climate Action Plan. And since LNG will delay implementation of renewable energy technology, we can also tell them we want to begin the transition to a low-carbon economy now.
Betty Morton
Bowen Island
