Michael Smyth on how Premier John Horgan and the NDP suddenly fell in love with LNG
Now in power, party using same arguments it mocked in opposition
The NDP’s new love affair with liquefied natural gas is quite the change of heart from their earlier contempt for the Liberals’ hot pursuit of the industry.
Back then, John Horgan ridiculed then-premier Christy Clark for spending so much time trying to develop LNG, insisting he would give the industry a much lower priority because it was “going nowhere.”
George Heyman, now the NDP environment minister, mocked Clark’s “pixie dust” LNG dreams. Carole James, now the NDP finance minister, laughed out loud at Clark’s LNG “fantasy.”
But now that the massive $40-billion LNG Canada megaproject has been approved — to the great delight of Horgan’s NDP government — the metamorphosis is complete.
And it’s nowhere better illustrated than the NDP’s sudden reversal on the benefits of selling our clean-burning LNG to coal-dependent China and other coal-burning customers in Asia.
Back when the Liberals were in power, Clark argued fiercely that shipping LNG to China would be good for the planet because the Chinese would burn less coal, which emits about twice as many global-warming greenhouse gases than LNG for the same unit of energy.
“It’s going to be a big favour to the world,” she said, in a comment thoroughly scorned bytheNDP.
“The assertions from the premier are that if we sell them gas, magically their emissions will go down,” said Horgan, then leader of the opposition. “I’m not convinced that will happen.”
Michelle Mungall, now the NDP energy minister, said Clark didn’t know what she was talking about.
“I can’t believe how ridiculous that is,” Mungall said. “It’s still a fossil fuel!”
But Horgan and Mungall are singing a different tune today.
Mungall said she met with officials from China, Japan and Korea all eager to buy B.C.’s LNG to replace coal.
“This is going to have an effect in displacing the drive for increased energy from coal-based sources,” she said.
“Right now, Japan has plans to bring 45 coal plants online because that’s what’s readily available. If they’re able to move from coal to natural gas, that will cut their carbon emissions in half.”
Apparently the idea of helping save the planet with B.C. LNG is not so “ridiculous” anymore.
Horgan said he hopes B.C.’s cleaner-burning LNG will reduce air pollution in China, which he experienced first hand on a recent trade mission.
“Having stood on the banks of the Pearl River and not being able to see the other side, they have some real challenges,” Horgan said.
On the potential for cleaner-burning LNG to help, Horgan said: “Should there be a positive benefit to air-quality in other jurisdictions, that’s a good thing.”
Talk about a conversion on the road to China!
Horgan said his trip heightened his concern for “public health and safety” from coaldriven air pollution in the country, a point the Liberals frequently made.
Gordon Wilson, the “LNG advocate” in the previous government, said B.C. LNG had the potential to save lives in China by making the air cleaner.
That brought withering criticism from Heyman, now the NDP environment minister.
“He shouldn’t be inventing wildly exaggerated claims of saving Chinese lives to justify LNG development in B.C.,” Heyman fumed. “There’s absolutely no evidence B.C. LNG will result in the use of less coal in China.”
But last week, when the LNG Canada project was approved, the government said precisely the opposite.
B.C. LNG “will help the world reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” the government told reporters in a media briefing. “The international dimension should be noted.”
Not everyone is convinced, of course.
“It’s just false and outright wrong,” said B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver, who argues production and transportation of LNG generates more greenhouse gases than people think.
“LNG has fugitive emissions associated with it,” he said, referring to global-warming gases like methane produced when the gas is taken out of the ground by fracking.
“You’re burning natural gas to compress it. You’re shipping it halfway around the world.”
But the converted Mungall, now firmly in the pro-LNG camp, said the NDP government is insisting B.C. LNG will be squeaky clean.
“We’re going to do things differently,” Mungall said. “LNG Canada is currently rated the cleanest and the least-carbon-intensive in the world.”
Experts say weaning China off coal is crucial to solving the global-warming crisis.
China currently produces 26 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases, mainly from burning coal, which provides 63 per cent of the country’s energy.
China is also the world’s leading investor in clean energy like wind and solar, but its reliance on coal is not going away soon.
“LNG is needed there urgently in the next 10 to 20 years to replace coal,” said Dr. Wenran Jiang, head of the Canada-China Energy and Environment Forum.
He points out that much of China’s emissions are generated from producing consumer goods that line the shelves of Canadian Tire and Walmart stores.
“We’re partly responsible,” he said. “So we need to be part of the solution.”
Christy Clark said the same thing. The NDP mocked her for it. But not anymore.