Climate concerns raised over proposed $10 billion Nisga’a LNG project

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The public continues to express concerns about the impact on climate change of the potential increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the Nisga’a-led $10 billion Ksi Lisims LNG export project in northwestern British Columbia.

This despite the project partners, which include Canadian natural gas producers and a Texas-based gas exporter, saying they will be able to meet the requirements. The province’s net zero carbon emissions policy. for new liquefied natural gas projects announced by Prime Minister David Eby last year.

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Houston, Texas-based Nisga’a, Rockies LNG Partners and Western LNG say they will largely do so with a 100-kilometre transmission line to connect to BC Hydro’s power grid, eliminating the need to liquefy the gas with natural gas. -Powered electrical generation. Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, will be loaded onto ships for transportation overseas, one of several projects underway or planned in British Columbia.

Concerns about climate change were outlined in a public comment report released this month by the BC Environmental Assessment Office.

“This project is an environmental disaster and a crazy thing to consider,” said one member of the public, among hundreds who provided comments.

In written statements published on the website of the environmental assessment officerThe person argued that there is no guarantee the project can achieve net-zero carbon emissions because BC Hydro has not provided a plan for how they will support a project like this from hydropower in the coming decades.

The project has not yet been accepted for final review through a process led by British Columbia regulators, pending responses from project partners to recent comments. If responses to the comments are deemed acceptable, the project would go through another 150-day effects evaluation phase, which also includes another public comment period.

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If the project is given the go-ahead, it could be years before construction is completed.

Project partners have said they have a high degree of confidence that transmission in northwest British Columbia will be upgraded to provide power for projects like LNG, pointing to a BC Hydro announcement in March 2024 that electricity producers were exploring expanding existing transmission infrastructure from Prince George to Terrace in northwestern British Columbia to help meet growing customer demand. “The project will be prepared to accept this power at the time of commissioning,” the partners told the environmental assessment office in response to concerns.

Another member of the public from Terrace, in the region where the project will be built, said they do not support the project due to concerns about global warming. “Another LNG project will add to the serious problems we have to face related to bushfires, drought, threats to fish and wildlife and species declines. “LNG is not green energy,” said the Terrace resident.

Concerns about the Nisga’a-led LNG project echo those of other LNG projects in British Columbia, including the recent approval of FortisBC’s Tilbury Marine Jetty project on the Fraser River in Delta, where LNG would be loaded into barges to supply ships in English Bay. and oil tankers bound for Asia.

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Last week, climate groups, including the British Columbia-based Wilderness Committee, published an open letter calling on Eby to reject new LNG terminals, stop issuing permits for natural gas fracking wells and develop plans to phase out gas drilling in the province.

Peter McCartney, climate campaigner at the Wilderness Committee, said one of the problems with environmental assessments like that of the Nisga’a-led LNG project is that they are restricted to the terminal and natural gas liquefaction process and do not include emissions. of methane from extraction. gas in northeastern British Columbia, its transportation and end-use emissions.

“Since the British Columbia NDP government was elected in 2017, we have been telling them that they cannot build a liquefied natural gas industry in this province, a completely new fossil fuel industry, and at the same time meet the commitments they made. have assumed in climate matters. change. That is still the truth. “We haven’t seen anything from them that would square that circle,” McCartney said.

Some members of the public who responded to the call for comments supported the project and others had concerns about the impact on the marine environment of shipping and other environmental concerns, including the impact to wildlife and their habitat on any transmission line route. .

While some First Nations in northwestern British Columbia have supported the Ksi Lisims project, Lax Kw’alaams have called for the environmental assessment application to be terminated.

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