EDITOR,
People in general don't know the tremendous bargain, domestic advantage and job creator CNG could be, if they would get involved, using the now-available gas and demanding, especially for CNG, to be readily available throughout Canada, at lowest cost to the consumer and adjust accordingly.
I have been waiting for household gas for years and still don't know when I could expect it. Same with transportation fuel: There is only one gas station that caries CNG and that is in North Vancouver, so why would anybody consider converting a car, not being able to fill up everywhere? If I had household gas I could charge my car at home and never have to see a gas station again and be taken advantage of by the multinational gas companies that jack up the gas prices whenever they like.
Everybody who wants to get household gas at his or her location should make an effort with all my neighbours, as we are making a submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission, that is set up to look into any complaints by B.C. residents.?Not getting domestic gas everywhere and at reasonable cost has to be addressed first, so for me it's "no domestic gas, no LNG development and export"!
LNG should be set aside and the local household gas and the supply of transportation CNG should take highest priority. By exporting our best kept secret and not promoting it here first, to attract businesses to take advantage of this low-cost energy source and provide employment and more security than trying to sell it to China, which has already made it clear that it is only interested in LNG from us. They just discovered natural gas in their own country and have installed more per capita on solar energy, that any other country, with the goal of self-sufficiency from their own resources in the future.
I believe rather than spending all that money on fracking and pipeline construction and sending all the promised jobs elsewhere, as we don,t have the expertise and the workforce trained, that we would be better off to start working on self-sufficiency in Canada and with it, use our resources that are here for the development and for the benefit of the Canadian people.
Also, with more people in Squamish getting involved in the aspect of safety of gas lines through populated areas, many area asking, "What is really the benefit, if any, for Squamish?" The recent gas line failures and explosions, demanding that not just under highways and railways, but within any populated area, any gas lines should have double piped, with flaring at designated areas. Also the air concerns of compressor sites and the proposed Woodfibre-LNG plant especially, are the main concerns of a movement to stop LNG export from the Howe Sound.
I believe the traffic on the narrow passage where these LNG tankers would have to navigate, with the heavily ship traffic of Horseshoe Bay, that a location on the Salish Sea would be preferable to Woodfibre should an LNG project be approved.
Hans Schaer
Squamish
