NDP not tied to plant cancellation? Really?

The boss of Petronas, the giant Malaysian energy company, says the decision to cancel its $11-billion LNG plant here has nothing to do with the election of an NDP-Green government.

Sure it doesn’t. Go ahead and believe that if you want. But I prefer not to be so gullible.

The NDP was hostile to the Pacific NorthWest LNG project from the start. The party wrote to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency last year, urging the megaproject be rejected because it was a threat to salmon stocks.

The NDP continued to rip the project after it was approved: The taxes on it were too low. The company wasn’t hiring enough local workers. The project was not sharing adequate benefits with First Nations.

NDP leader John Horgan — now the premier — said in February the plant was “poorly sited” and he would “find a better place and a better way” to build it if the NDP came to power.

“I will deal with those issues after the election,” Horgan said. “I’ve made that clear to the proponents.”

How was the company supposed to take that? The project had already been approved by both the federal and provincial governments, but here was Horgan vowing to “deal” with Petronas if he took over.

During the election campaign, the NDP vowed to increase the carbon tax on the project — a heavy carbon emitter — and to jack up corporate taxes, as well.

The NDP also promised a “scientific review” of fracking, the controversial gas extraction process the project relies on for its gas supply. The NDP talked about tough new environmental regulations and Horgan even refused to rule out a moratorium on fracking, a direct threat to the project’s viability.

But the election of an NDP government has nothing to do with the project being cancelled? Give me a break.

Don’t get me a wrong. This project had a lot of strikes against it even without a hostile government in power: Dropping gas prices. A global supply glut. Competition from the United States, Australia, the Middle East and elsewhere. The overall high cost of doing business in Canada.

But to say the new NDP government had nothing to do with it going down the tubes is pretty ridiculous.

Why would Petronas say the NDP government’s policies played no role in the decision to scrap the project? What else do you expect them to say?

The company has already spent $5 billion developing its natural gas assets in B.C. It has drilled hundreds of gas wells. It will likely need to work with the B.C. government again in the future. Why tick the NDP off?

Of course, the project could have collapsed if Christy Clark had won the election, too. But keep in mind that Rich Coleman, the former energy minister, warned before the election that the project faced difficulties and the Liberals might “restart” talks on the project’s taxation deal with the government.

The chances of the NDP sweetening the deal for Petronas? Less than zero. The New Democrats vowed to do the opposite: Increase taxes and regulations on the project.

So the NDP had nothing to do with the cancellation? Tell me another fairy tale.