A Clear Look at BC LNG

Today we released a major new report, A Clear Look at BC LNG: Energy Security, Environmental Implications and Economic Potential, by geoscientist David Hughes.

The report considers the ambition of the LNG enterprise as envisioned by the BC government, and delivers the first assessment of the cumulative impacts on LNG development, and in particular the huge increase in fracking that would be needed to support it. The report estimates the number of wells that would need to be drilled and the resultant impacts on water and land disturbance, and greenhouse gas emissions.

A key finding is that the National Energy Board is not doing its job to ensure Canadian energy security. The NEB has approved far more export capacity than its own publications state is available for export after meeting domestic needs. Basically, a large LNG industry means the rest of Canada would become net importers of natural gas. And the BC government has been vastly overstating the amount of gas we have in the ground.

David was on CBC’s Early Edition this morning, and there are stories in today’s Globe and Sun (print edition only, for now) Andrew Nikiforuk provides an excellent summary in this Tyee article. We also produced a shareable infographic.