B.C. coal is a dirty little secret

West Coasters are fiercely proud of British Columbia’s green image.

Environmental activism has long been a key part of the province’s identity and political fabric.

Given that, it’s no surprise that many Lotus Landers despise what they regard as “dirty oil” from Alberta’s oilsands and are dead set against any new pipelines that would carry bitumen to the West Coast.

But when it comes to “dirty” coal, it’s a different story.

For the most part, B.C.’s rapidly growing, multi-billiondollar coal industry has gotten a free pass, even if it conflicts with the province’s carefully cultivated green brand.

Although B.C. has dramatically ramped up the production and export of coal — the dirtiest of all fossil fuels — it rarely merits a peep from the West Coast’s raucous anti-oilsands crowd or the Vancouver media.

What’s more, unknown to most people, B.C.’s widely praised carbon tax isn’t imposed on the province’s booming coal exports.

So while the B.C. government likes to take credit for its efforts to curb carbon emissions, that’s only half the story.

The other half is that B.C. makes a lot of money from coal, while it “offshores” the carbon emissions from that coal to customers in Asia.

Coal revenues in B.C. reached $5.2 billion last year, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of the province’s total mining revenues.

And there are plans afoot for several new mines.

Public awareness of B.C.’s growing coal exports — and the emissions associated with them — is rising, however, now that United States coal producers hope to jump on the bandwagon by boosting exports of U.S. coal through Port Metro Vancouver.

Two proposed local terminal expansions — one to ship up to eight million tonnes of thermal coal, the other to export as much as 18 million tonnes of metallurgical coal — are now being considered by the port authority.

In a way, the train has already left the station.

A recent poll commissioned by the Dogwood Initiative, a Victoria-based environmental group, shows most West Coasters are unaware that U.S. producers have already increased coal exports through B.C. ports by a whopping 300 per cent over the past two years.

Once informed, nearly half of those surveyed say they’re opposed to it.

“It’s very concerning that B.C. has become a major cog in the global coal industry with very little discussion on the matter,” says Will Horter, Dogwood’s executive director.

“This expansion of ports would result in increased coal train traffic, with an accompanying increase in the dispersal of toxic coal dust, a major health risk to the region’s communities.”

Dogwood has asked the port authority to delay its decision, create a transparent review process and look at the projected impact of increased coal exports on climate change.

Local mayors have also joined in the call for more review.

Still, whatever review the port undertakes will be far less rigorous than the exhaustive, multi-year National Energy Board review of Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Even if U.S. coal exports don’t increase through Vancouver, coal will remain a large and growing industry in B.C. — one whose emissions, if properly included, would vastly increase B.C.’s total carbon emissions.

To its credit, Dogwood published a study on this issue last year titled B.C.’s Dirty Secret: Big Coal and the Export of Global Warming Pollution.

Although it got little media play on the West Coast, it showed that emissions associated with B.C.’s coal exports, if accounted for, would have roughly doubled B.C.’s total emissions for 2008.

“If mined and burned, the total heat-trapping pollution from the reserves of B.C.’s proposed and operating coal mines will be approximately 14.8 billion tonnes,” the report says.

“This would amount to an unbelievable 6.35 per cent of the total heat-trapping pollution scientists believe humanity can emit globally between now and 2100. Put another way, it is equivalent to adding almost 2.8 billion additional passenger cars to the road,” it says.

“That’s almost 3.5 times the total number of cars on the road worldwide today. These are just a few of the dirty secrets in the story of how a few big coal companies and the B.C. government are exporting global warming on a scale few British Columbians can comprehend.

“And that scale is quietly, but rapidly, growing.”