Trudeau calls liquefied natural gas project in B.C. the biggest private investment in Canada’s history – Climate activists call it “irresponsible”

Desdemona Despair

By Tiffany Crawford   
2 October 2018

(Vancouver Sun) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is celebrating the single largest private investment in Canadian history with the $40-billion liquefied natural-gas export terminal on B.C.’s North Coast.

Trudeau was in Vancouver on Tuesday to formally announce the giant energy project’s go-ahead, along with Premier John Horgan, LNG Canada, and First Nations leaders.

LNG Canada was given final approval late Monday to move to construction by a consortium of oil-and-gas companies headed by Royal Dutch Shell.

Trudeau also announced $275 million in federal support, and pledged that once built, the project will have the lowest carbon intensity of any large-scale LNG facility in the world.

“Today’s announcement by LNG Canada represents the single largest private-sector investment project in Canadian history, Trudeau said. “It is a vote of confidence in a country that recognizes the need to develop our energy in a way that takes the environment into account, and that works in meaningful partnership with Indigenous people.”

Trudeau said providing Asia with natural gas will help many countries kick their coal habit, and shows Canada’s commitment to combating the problem of climate change by driving down emissions worldwide.

“Climate change knows no borders, and as we reduce and replace coal plants around the world, LNG, done properly, done responsibly, here in British Columbia and across Western Canada, that’s good news for all of us,” he said. […]

Still, not everyone celebrated the announcement Tuesday. B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver said he was “deeply disappointed” that the government went ahead with the project.

“Adding such a massive new source of (greenhouse gases) means that the rest of our economy will have to make even more sacrifices to meet our climate targets,” said Weaver.

He said he believes B.C. can create far more jobs in other industries that won’t drastically increase emissions.

“It breaks my heart that the young people of today must watch as politicians who once professed to champion climate action and a hopeful vision for the future instead succumb to the temptation of short-sighted political wins,” he said.

The Sierra Club of B.C. called going ahead with the construction without a credible climate plan “irresponsible” of the B.C. government.

“It is irresponsible for the provincial and federal governments to continue to allow new fossil-fuel projects to go ahead without strong, detailed climate plans and accountability mechanisms,” said Jens Wieting, a spokesman for Sierra. “We need a climate test for all major energy projects, a test that stops projects whose carbon footprint makes meeting targets impossible.”

Wieting argued that the carbon footprint of LNG Canada’s Kitimat project can’t fit in any climate-action plan that is in line with the central goal of the Paris Agreement — to limit warming to between 1.5 and 2 C. Beyond 2 C, impacts to the planet will be catastrophic, he said.

Horgan, who is staunchly opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion because of environmental concerns, insisted that B.C. will meet its emissions targets even with this LNG project, though he didn’t provide a specific plan. [more]

Trudeau calls LNG project in B.C. the biggest private investment in Canada’s history