Fracking & LNG

Dangerous precedent: Petronas subsidiary gets free pass after building unlicensed fracking dams

Oct 22, 2018

In a decision without precedent in its 25 years of existence, British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has told Progress Energy that two massive unauthorized dams that it built will not have to undergo environmental assessments. The decision comes after the company made an audacious request to the EAO to have the two dams declared… View Article

LNG Canada: Short-term politics trumps long-term climate responsibility

Oct 4, 2018

By Marc Lee

LNG Canada’s final investment decision to build a natural gas liquefaction facility in Kitimat is a triumph of short-term politics over long-term responsibility to act on climate change. Exaggerated numbers have been used to sell the project to the public, while risks have been downplayed. The politics of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have a certain logic… View Article

Paved with good intentions: A guide to evolving climate policies in BC

Sep 12, 2018

By Marc Lee

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, an economics professor of mine used to say back in the late 1980s. Concerned about the federal government’s inability to reign in fiscal deficits, hell back then was hitting a “financial wall” where the markets would no longer lend or would only do so at catastrophically… View Article

The Petro State Lackey: How BC’s zest for natural gas fuels Alberta’s oil sands

Aug 8, 2018

By Ben Parfitt

In the past year, an energy dispute for the ages has played out in Canada, culminating in the federal government announcing that it will buy an aging oil pipeline for $4.5 billion and then twin it with a new high-capacity pipeline that would move massive amounts of diluted bitumen from Alberta to tidewater in British… View Article

The problem with BC’s “clean growth” climate rhetoric

Aug 2, 2018

By Marc Lee

The BC government recently released three “intentions papers” on climate policy—transportation, buildings and industry—all wrapped in the term “clean growth.” In fact, the term “clean” appears more than 70 times in just the introduction to the exercise, Towards a Clean Growth Future in BC. Clean growth is not a commonly used term, nor is it… View Article

LNG is incompatible with BC’s climate obligations

Jul 11, 2018

By Marc Lee

Now that we are in a sunny lull between the end of flooding season and the start of fire season, it’s time we had a talk about fossil fuels and climate change in BC. The BC government deserves praise for standing up to Alberta and the federal government over the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX),… View Article

Tax breaks and subsidies for BC LNG

Jul 5, 2018

By Marc Lee

At the height of LNG-mania in 2013/14, high prices in Asia fueled a gold rush mentality in BC—based on shipping cheap BC gas to Asia for mega-profits. But those high prices proved only temporary, and by 2015 the economic case for LNG (liquified natural gas) turned on its head. The subsequent Asian price for gas… View Article

Threatened caribou further endangered: Suppressed audit shows Oil and Gas Commission undermining provincial efforts to save species

May 28, 2018

By Ben Parfitt

On an April morning in 2014, members of the Fort Nelson First Nation tucked into a helicopter to begin a day of flying to fossil fuel company operations in their territory. The Nation’s lands are part of the expansive Treaty 8 territory that includes northeast British Columbia. A professional biologist from Fort St. John was… View Article

Easy Water: Time bombs, fracking dams and the rush for H2O on private farmlands

Mar 29, 2018

By Ben Parfitt

The number of unlicensed and potentially dangerous dams built in recent years in northeast British Columbia is nearly double what has been reported, according to one of the province’s top water officials. At least 92 unauthorized dams have been built in the region where natural gas industry fracking operations consume more water than just about… View Article

Damming the information flow: BC government officials button lipped on potentially dangerous dams

By Ben Parfitt

Early last spring, provincial civil servants cut off virtually all communication about what the government knew about a sprawling network of potentially dangerous and unregulated dams in northeast BC on the pretext they could not comment because of the impending election. The coordinated effort meant there was virtually no comment until months after voting day… View Article

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A progressive take on BC issues

A progressive take on BC issues

Fracking & LNG

Dangerous precedent: Petronas subsidiary gets free pass after building unlicensed fracking dams

LNG Canada: Short-term politics trumps long-term climate responsibility

Paved with good intentions: A guide to evolving climate policies in BC

The Petro State Lackey: How BC’s zest for natural gas fuels Alberta’s oil sands

The problem with BC’s “clean growth” climate rhetoric

LNG is incompatible with BC’s climate obligations

Tax breaks and subsidies for BC LNG

Threatened caribou further endangered: Suppressed audit shows Oil and Gas Commission undermining provincial efforts to save species

Easy Water: Time bombs, fracking dams and the rush for H2O on private farmlands

Damming the information flow: BC government officials button lipped on potentially dangerous dams