The 小蓝视频 government has weakened a policy that required new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in the province to produce net-zero emissions by 2030.
In a — quietly published to a government website and dated March 21 — Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix backpedalled on commitments made by his predecessor to require LNG terminals to operate in a way that produces no net greenhouse gas emissions.
The new government policy now requires proponents of LNG facilities to provide a “credible plan” for the project to be “net-zero ready” by the end of the decade, wrote Dix to Alex MacLennan, chief executive assessment officer of the province’s Environmental Assessment Office.
Dix went on to explain that means having an LNG terminal ready to be powered by grid electricity — unless not possible because there’s an inability to provide enough electricity.
The amended policy does not say when the facilities would need to stop producing greenhouse gas emissions and operate at a net-zero level.
Matt Hulse, a lawyer with the firm Ecojustice, said the letter appears to apply to all LNG projects currently under environmental assessment.
Powering the Ksi Lisims LNG project with gas alone instead of electricity would produce another 1.8 million tonnes of emissions per year, said Hulse. That's equivalent to the carbon produced by more than 551,000 passenger vehicles in a year, according to Natural Resources Canada.
Under the new “net-zero ready” plans, terminals could simply ignore those emissions, added the lawyer.
"It provides an open-ended invitation for these LNG facilities to build gas-powered generators without any deadline,” Hulse said.
The 小蓝视频 Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions has yet to respond to questions from BIV.
LNG a critical part of Canada surviving tariffs, say proponents
Proponents of LNG say gas exports will continue to bolster 小蓝视频’s economy for years to come, and are especially important in lieu of the U.S. tariff war that further escalated to dozens of countries around the world Thursday.
Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his party would commit to all five requests made by the oil and gas industry to expand their footprint in response to U.S. tariffs.
The five-point plan included declaring an “energy crisis” and using emergency powers to speed up development of key projects in the “national interest.”
Oil and gas executives also called on Ottawa to eliminate the federal government’s cap on emissions; reassess the West Coast limit on oil tankers; and repeal the carbon levy on large industrial emitters.
“We need to get out from under America’s thumb and start building the infrastructure that is essential to sell our natural resources to new markets, bring home jobs and dollars, and make us sovereign and self-reliant to stand up to Trump from a position of strength,” said Poilievre.
“Canada’s energy sector, the experts on energy growth, have told us what we need to do. Today I am committing to meeting all of their urgent recommendations.”
Net-zero ready a 'pipe dream': economist
Werner Antweiler, an energy economist at the University of British Columbia, said he worries that pursuing such open-ended policies will only lead to short-term benefits.
“I do see this crisis is being used for advancing controversial projects that should be looked at with proper care for future British Columbians,” he said.
He pointed to several studies that have raised concerns over 小蓝视频's ability to remain competitive on global LNG markets.
Antweiler said the province’s promise to require new LNG terminals operate at net-zero emissions by 2030 amounted to government “window dressing.” Dix's letter does little to change his assessment.
“It’s a pipe dream to call them net-zero ready,” Antweiler said.
Part of the reason for the misplaced optimism, he said, was that the terminals would have to find carbon offsets somewhere else. Antweiler said it’s never been clear where and how those offsets — which can include planting trees somewhere else to absorb carbon — would occur.
When it comes to emissions, the "elephant in the room" is the fact none of the calculations count upstream emissions that are released in the processing of gas. If the largely methane gas leaks into the air during extraction, storage or transportation, it acts as a greenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over the first 20 years in the atmosphere.
Then there’s the question of having enough electricity. The Ksi Lisims LNG project is expected to consume roughly the equivalent amount of energy that the Site C dam produces every year.
With 小蓝视频 Hydro’s latest successful call to power, Antweiler said there are enough electricity generating projects coming online over the next five to seven years to satisfy demand from transportation and heat pumps, and maybe a few more data centres. After that, there's little left over.
“To actually electrify, you actually have to have enough electricity,” Antweiler said.
“But when you do the math, we’d need to essentially dedicate all the new capacity to these facilities.”
