LNG more than jobs vs. environment
The important public discussion around the extent to which we base our economy on LNG export has been cast as a simplistic struggle between the reactionary forces of ‘no’ and the good folks who are working hard to get to ‘yes.’
This is not an issue as simple as jobs versus the environment.
No economy that wrecks the environment can create anything other than a relatively short-term economic boom. The price is a poorer long-term economy with fewer choices.
Look no further than our diminished forest industry.
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We are using fracked gas in BC because we have already used all our stocks of natural gas that are easily available through conventional drilling. This reality presents us with two more problems.
If we wish to export our natural gas, we are going to have to increase production and that is going to increase the ecological damage.
Second, any amount of gas that is made available for export is no longer available for BC. We need that gas.
By creating an economy based on energy export, we are weakening our domestic energy security. This is strange behaviour for a province that has historically succeeded by creating an economy based on inexpensive public energy.
China is not making this mistake. It has considerable reserves of natural gas. It is leaving them in the ground and buying Australian and Russian gas in order to conserve its own supply.
Handout/Pacific Northwest LNGPetronas is looking to build the Pacific Northwest LNG project on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert, B.C.