The Council of Canadians encourages Petronas to make good on its threat to cancel its Pacific Northwest LNG project.
Petronas has been seeking to build their export LNG facility on Lelu Island in northwestern British Columbia. Their terminal could be operational by 2018 and would be serviced by the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline. The chiefs of the Gitxsan house of Luutkudziiwus have already said that pipeline cannot go through its territory.
The Globe and Mail reports, “[A] Financial Times report [has] quoted [Petronas CEO] Shamsul Abbas as saying in an interview he is ‘ready to call off’ the project amid a delayed regulatory approval process, plans by the B.C. government to impose an LNG tax and a ‘lack of appropriate incentives’. …[But B.C.’s natural gas development minister Rich] Coleman said the government continues to work on a tax regimes [favourable] for the liquefied natural gas sector… B.C. Premier Christy Clark is a keen promoter of the development of LNG export facilities in the province.”
“There are more than a dozen ventures envisaged for B.C. [and] the government is set to pitch the benefits of LNG development at local public meetings next month.”
The Council of Canadians opposes Liquefied Natural Gas projects. To find out more about that work, please read this blog by BC-Yukon regional organizer Leila Darwish, LNG Pipedreams, Fractured Futures and Community Resistance. In her report she notes the forum in Vancouver organized this past May by the Council of Canadians and the Wilderness Committee to counter the government and corporate LNG agenda.
Tonight, Darwish and Council of Canadians organizer Brigette DePape will be at the LNG and Petro-State Politics event in Squamish featuring Andrew Nikiforuk which is being co-sponsored by the Council of Canadians. Darwish will also be at a public forums opposing LNG development in Delta on October 22 and in Comox Valley on November 4.
The Council of Canadians opposes LNG projects for numerous reasons including they contribute to climate change, consume massive amounts of water, cause ecosystem destruction, often violate the rights of Indigenous peoples, and negatively impact air quality.