Response to Jordan Sturdy: “Is B.C. a climate leader or climate laggard?” (March 24).
About a decade ago, the B.C. Liberals could justifiably have claimed “climate leader” status. That was very much to do with a carbon tax policy that created an actual measurable decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) production as well as a visionary attempt to increase small-scale hydro projects. Despite much opposition from the narrow interests of both business and environmentalists, both efforts have proven prescient.
The problem of climate change is a forecasting problem – competently identifying the future risk and taking appropriate actions that will influence our outcomes in the future. That takes both foresight and a rare political morality. In that context, the past B.C. Liberal leadership did indeed show leadership…. so many years ago.
Their current “leadership” is little more than a cynical leverage of this old and expired reputation, assuming no one will notice the reality of an exponential increase of GHG production if LNG goes ahead. LNG as climate action is based on one flimsy premise – that if China burns our LNG instead of coal, we all win. Just one major problem with that: The current scientific analysis does not support this claim. In fact, it suggests just the opposite. It is nothing but a smoke-and-mirrors illusion generated to greenwash the LNG concept.
If the present-day B.C. Liberals were “climate leaders,” they would shift development focus onto the resource that has an infinitely better chance of weaning others off of coal. For instance, instead of facilitating LNG, Site C should be developed for only one purpose in terms of export – getting Alberta, Saskatchewan and other North American regions off coal. Similarly, small scale run-of-river hydro should be further pursued to this end. The northeast gasfields may some day make sense, but in its current manifestation, it does not. LNG is a subversion of our climate leadership. Displacing coal power with hydro power would reestablish B.C. as a climate leader.
My question is, if the B.C. Liberals were to suddenly shift focus to hydro, would their usual opponents support them? Two basic needs are undeniable in the medium term: economic growth and a serious need to lower GHG. Whether it’s true or false, environmentalists always suffer from a particular perception – that they are merely enviro-NIMBYs and don’t care about economic development. Our local anti LNG groups could gain a lot of credibility by advocating for a hydro development focus, perhaps starting with a statement of support for the District of Squamish’s proposal for a run-of-river power plant on Mashiter Creek.
Bruce Kay
Squamish
