B.C.’s LNG industry will help global effort to cut emissions

Re: British Columbians deserve to hear the real cost of LNG, Opinion, Feb. 2.

Merran Smith and Dan Woynillowicz say “we can only truly control what happens in our own backyard” as the justification for not developing a liquefied natural-gas (LNG) industry in B.C. Yet this is exactly the reason B.C. should develop an LNG industry.

B.C. would be the only LNG-producing jurisdiction in the world requiring, by law, that LNG projects must be below a strict emissions-intensity benchmark. B.C. would also be the only jurisdiction apart from Norway with a carbon tax on LNG.

As a result, the LNG developed in our own backyard will use technologies and approaches that make it the cleanest in the world, with some of the lowest emissions. A recent Johns Hopkins University study confirmed B.C. LNG will help lower global greenhouse-gas emissions when used to offset coal, and can help provide a flexible grid, allowing for more renewable energy.

One year’s supply of LNG from a large-scale LNG project in B.C., if used to generate electricity in Asia instead of using coal, would reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions by a net 60 million to 90 million tonnes, which would offset as much or more than all of B.C.’s annual emissions.

The broader benefits to Indigenous, community and the provincial and national economies also balance the incremental CO2 emissions. These incremental emissions can be offset using the $30-per-tonne carbon tax collected from LNG projects for the purchase of B.C.developed carbon offsets or green-technology funds to assist in meeting provincial reduction targets.

The fight against climate change requires a global perspective, not just a local one. B.C. has the chance to act as a global leader to help reduce emissions and supply the world’s growing demand for natural gas.

If B.C. passes on this opportunity, the U.S. will remain the only market for our natural gas, and U.S. companies will buy it at low commodity value, liquefy and export it — without B.C.’s emissions regulations or carbon tax — and sell it for much more. By doing so, B.C. would forfeit the economic benefits and would fall short of its potential to address global climate change. David Keane, president, B.C. LNG Alliance