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Inside-Climate

Where is B.C. going with its climate policy ?

Climate change action in BC

Last year was the hottest year on record, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Hundreds of climate scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change now foresee global temperatures rising at least 2.5 C above industrial levels with catastrophic consequences according to a recent report in The Guardian. Yet B.C., which calls itself a leader on climate, has seen emissions soar 26% from 1990 to 2021 (the last year for which we have complete statistics).

Meanwhile, the U.K. has seen its emissions drop 53% below 1990 levels. All the other G7 nations have also seen a drop in emissions since 1990. Within Canada, the only provinces with a worst record than B.C. are Alberta and Saskatchewan. And the six eastern provinces have all seen a drop in emissions since 1990.

For years, B.C. has tried to have it both ways, investing heavily in energy efficiency and expanding the province’s electrical system with new wind, solar and high voltage transmission lines. But at the same time, the government is promoting new LNG projects which entail more methane (natural gas) extraction through fracking.

The B.C. government claims all new projects after LNG Canada will be carbon-neutral because they will be supplied with electricity. This is wishful thinking. Expanding electricity production itself is not carbon-neutral when you consider the construction phase. Fracking is also fossil fuel-intensive. During extraction, transport to the LNG facility and shipping off-shore not only are fossil fuels used, especially methane, but methane escapes.

Several recent studies show methane to be worse than coal in greenhouse gas emissions over 20 years when methane leakage is taken into account.

The B.C. government assured us the province could build the first phase of LNG Canada and Woodfibre LNG and stay within Clean BC’s emissions targets. However, the province is again not on track to meet these targets for 2025 (and has never met its targets) because LNG Canada is due to come online this year—and that’s only with the pollution from this single facility.

Woodfibre LNG is under construction and there are three more LNG proposals—Tilbury Phase 2, Cedar LNG and Ksi Lisims LNG, as well as the second phase of LNG Canada. If all four additional facilities are built, they will exceed the province’s sectoral target for the oil and gas industry more than threefold. Two have all the permits they need for construction, and the other two are moving through the process as if B.C.’s climate commitments did not exist.

According to Clean Energy Canada, if all six LNG projects were to be built, their operational and upstream emissions alone would make up 40% of the province’s 2030 emissions target (that is even assuming all facilities are electrified, which in itself would require the electricity of 8.4 Site C dams).

And that’s just B.C.’s emissions. The emissions from combusting the exported fuel at its destination—which is accounted for in the importing countries’ greenhouse gas inventories—would be 10 times greater. In addition, the assumption that LNG can reduce emissions by displacing coal is highly uncertain, with some studies suggesting it could actually have a negative overall impact on emissions. Furthermore, any expansion or reliance on LNG risks undermining public and private-sector investments in renewable energy and locking in fossil-fuel-related infrastructure.

Put simply, LNG expansion is inconsistent with a province that aims to achieve net zero.

There is also a question of market demand. LNG markets are expected to be over-supplied by the end of the decade, just as B.C.’s proposed LNG projects would be coming on-stream. On top of that, LNG from B.C. is expected to be more expensive compared to many other jurisdictions, further undermining its business case.

To add insult to injury for B.C. residents, LNG Canada, owned entirely by foreign companies, was offered $6 billion over 40 years in tax and regulatory relief.

Recently LNG projects were offered an exemption from 65% or more of the carbon tax.

B.C. has some decisions to make, among them, this spring the government must decide whether to greenlight the Ksi Lisims LNG project, as well as the reconfigured Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline to feed it.

Both projects are highly contested by First Nations and environmental groups, even though the Ksi Lisims is partly owned by the Nisga’a First Nation. However, many of its members are against the project.

Perhaps, B.C. should have a look at the actions of the province of Quebec. After 12 years of struggle against fracking by environmental groups, Bill 21 was approved by the National Assembly and will soon become law. That law will put an end to all new exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the province.

Quebec is definitely moving into the new era beyond fossil fuels. B.C. should do the same.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.





Is RNG a climate solution or another obstacle to progress ?

Renewable natural gas

My colleague in this column, Janet Parkins, recently wrote about renewable natural gas and its problematic nature as a strategy for FortisBC to make it fossil natural gas more climate friendly.

Since then, there have been letters of support as well as a rebuttal from FortisBC. I thought it would be worthwhile to have another look at this controversial issue.

According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, global temperatures continue to rise. The last 10 years have been the hottest 10 years since records began being kept in 1880, and last year was the hottest yet.

The main cause is our burning of fossil fuels—coal, methane and oil. The International Energy Agency, made up of 44 countries representing 75% of world global energy demand, stated clearly last year that our only hope to avoid the worst consequences of climate change is to stop developing new sources of fossil fuels and transition rapidly off them.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly said the same thing. Emissions due to burning methane made up 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2022.

In his Jan. 10 rebuttal letter, Jason Wolfe, director of energy solutions at FortisBC, discussed the minutiae of why a small amount of RNG (which is produced through biological processes but is nonetheless methane) added to fossil methane reduces its impact on climate change.

It was classic “greenwashing.” Greenwashing refers to promoting the idea that corporate practices or products which are damaging to human health and/or the environment (and the production and burning of methane is both) are actually beneficial. By promoting RNG, FortisBC takes attention away from the facts.

I am not the only one who believes RNG promotion is greenwashing. The non-profit, Stand.earth, along with two B.C. residents, initiated a law suit against FortisBC last year, claiming Fortis’ advertising of methane as a climate friendly source of home heating, and adding 10,000 new methane customers per year, threatens climate progress.

They point out it will be difficult to meet Clean BC’s climate goals without eliminating methane heating from buildings. Also, more than 90% of Fortis’ methane comes from fracking in northern B.C., which has its own set of problems, including extensive water and air pollution and deleterious effects on human and wildlife health.

The Canadian Climate Institute pointed out in 2024 that home heating, along with the oil and gas sector are among the few sectors in Canada whose emissions have not decreased and, in fact, are up 8.8% from 2005 to 2022. The province of Quebec is taking this seriously and is banning all methane heating in residential and commercial buildings by 2040.

While trying to create an image for itself as a company that is trying to do the right thing for the climate, FortisBC is actually trying to stop municipalities, through lobbying, law suits and testifying at public meetings, from bringing in bylaws to limit or exclude new methane hook-ups. It has also asked the B.C. Utilities Commission to allow the expansion of methane pipelines in this province.

It is debatable whether adding a small amount of RNG makes any difference to the negative impact of using methane as a fuel. RNG is still methane, which is a greenhouse gas more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. It still leaks into the atmosphere during production, transport and use and is still harmful to human health when used, for instance, in gas stoves.

RNG is also more expensive to produce than fossil methane, one of the reasons why FortisBC, this month, increased prices for B.C. methane customers as it increased RNG in its methane supply from 1% to 2%.

According to Fortis, the average customer will pay an extra $14.25 per month this year. Fresh Energy, a climate policy analysis group in Minnesota, estimated in 2021 that RNG costs three to 18 times more to produce than fossil methane. RNG will never be more than the 15% that FortisBC is promising for 2030 and probably a lot less because of a lack of supply, according to the same group.

Even Fortis itself recognizes RNG is not a long-term solution. In its own 2022 report, it emphasizes other biofuels including syngas from wood, hydrogen from fossil methane, and eventually, electricity. There are more climate-friendly uses of wood waste (biochar) and electricity (heat pumps), while producing hydrogen from fossil methane is just prolonging our use of methane.

FortisBC could follow the example of Puget Sound Energy, a gas and electric utility in Washington state. It has launched a 10,000-household electrification pilot project to help relieve pressure on overtaxed areas of its methane infrastructure, rather than expanding it.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



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About the Author

Eli lives in the north Okanagan near Vernon and has a PhD in insect ecology from Université Laval in Quebec City. He has conducted insect research in the Canadian Prairies for the National Research Council, Agriculture Canada and Parks Canada. He has worked as a wilderness guide and wilderness skills instructor and has explored many parts of Canada by canoe. He recently retired from 20 years of teaching high school, mainly on First Nation reserves in northern Ontario and in Saskatchewan. He currently spends a lot of his time working with two Vernon-area environmental groups, writing, educating, lobbying and organizing for climate action. He  is a dedicated hunter, angler, forager, birder, canoeist, and skiier and is happiest in Nature.

The natural world has always been Janet’s favourite place—hiking, skiing, kayaking, bird watching, botanizing, gardening and more. A retired pharmacist, lifelong environmentalist, recycler and social activist, Janet feels government has a critical role in fostering a more equitable society and a healthier environment. She lives her values by eating vegetarian, heating her house with a heat pump and driving an electric car powered by the solar panels on her roof. She believes each of us needs to do what we can to reduce our planetary impacts and is  is a founding member of Frack Free BC Vernon, is on the board of Climate Action Now! North Okanagan and is a former member of local electoral district association boards of both the provincial and federal Green Party. She is a long-time member of the North Okanagan Naturalists’ Club, sings in the Okanagan Symphony Chorus and with Opera Kelowna, volunteers with the Vernon Folk Roots Music Society and is former artistic director of the North Okanagan Community Concert Association.



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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