Clean power bridge? Or a bridge to the past?
COMMENT:
A bridge to the past
Clean power bridge? Stepping-stone? WestPac LNG spokesmen can't figure out how to spin their project.
BC Hydro says in its 2007 Annual Report that 1.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) were created in British Columbia from electricity generation. GHG emissions in BC from all sources are 65-80 million tonnes. So only about 1.5 percent of our provincial GHGs are attributable to electricity.
Thanks to the huge hydroelectric legacy bequeathed to us by W.A.C. Bennett, British Columbians can boast that we are among the lowest GHG emitters in the world when it comes to electricity generation. That's not a problem that needs fixing. It certainly does not need the "fix" proposed by WestPac LNG.
The Texada generation project will generate up to 4 million tonnes of GHGs per year, tripling the provincial output. Some bridge. That's gotta be a "fix" of a different sort, because it certainly doesn't mean "repair" or "make better."
WestPac's gas plant may be as big as 1200 megawatts (MW), or five times the size of the former Duke Point project. Duke Point, readers may remember, was rejected in 2003 by the BC Utilities Commission and was cancelled in 2005 by BC Hydro and the BC Government. If Duke Point was not good for BC at 260 MW, how could the Texada project be good for BC at 1200 MW?
As for the natural gas, BC already produces far more gas than we use. The surplus is sold into the United States. So all the gas that WestPac proposes bringing to Texada Island will merely displace BC gas in the pipeline, causing an equivalent amount of BC gas to join that which is already being delivered to US markets. In effect, WestPac is proposing to import gas to BC to serve the US. Maybe that's what they mean by "bridge" and Texada is just a "stepping-stone."
The facts are pretty easy to understand. WestPac's Texada project is a bridge straight back to the thinking that got us to the problem that Premier Campbell is trying to fix. It is a stepping-stone to rubbing our collective faces in our concerns about climate change.
WestPac is all about making money for its investors. The Premier's climate change agenda is all about saving the world. Holy smokes. Difficult choice.
Clean power bridge
Laura Walz -- Peak Editor
Powell River Peak
Feb 7, 2008
BC introducing emission hard caps
Proponents of a combined liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and natural gas-fired electrical generation facility for the north-end of Texada Island say their project will provide a stepping-stone to the goal of producing power without emitting greenhouse gases (GHG).
Stu Leson, WestPac LNG Corporation president, and Bob Green, vice-president, business development, were in Powell River on Wednesday and Thursday, January 30 and 31. They said the company continues to wait for a provincial climate action team to determine sector targets, part of an initiative to reduce GHG. Legislation is expected to be introduced this spring to allow for the creation of market mechanisms, making BC the first province in Canada to legally require hard caps on GHG emissions. Those caps will be used as part of a "cap-and-trade system" that is scheduled to be developed by next August through the Western Climate Initiative.
"Every time we turn around this issue of how they are going to establish this cap-and-trade system, it becomes more complicated," said Leson. "We thought it was going to be some combination of western states and perhaps British Columbia. But now Canada it seems is trying to get together all of the provinces and come up with a system. Everybody has a lot of questions and it doesn't seem like anybody has answers or solutions. We really have to wait until some of the rules are established before we go too far with the final design of the projects."
Green, a chemical engineer who was a director of the BC Energy Commission, the precursor of the BC Utilities Commission, said the issue also involves a national political dilemma. "Currently, BC would like to see itself as the centre of the cap-and-trade system," he said. "Quebec would like to see itself as the centre of the cap-and-trade system. Ottawa is still on the fence, deciding how they want to deal with this issue."
Alberta has its own agenda because it has the responsibility in Canada to meet the energy needs of a good portion of North America, Green added. "Their situation is quite different and their viewpoint is quite different than others, because they are struggling to meet that responsibility as best they can," he said. "It is a complex issue. In the states, you have equally, if not more, complex issues to deal with. There is this need that has to be met, but how do you get people to agree on a course of action when the rules of the game are not quite clear?"
Green has also worked for West Coast Energy and owned his own business, Coast Pacific Management Inc., a natural gas marketing company that was bought by Avista Energy Canada Ltd. of Washington State.
The eventual goal is to produce power without emitting GHG, Green agreed, but it is a very difficult thing to accomplish. "It's what we aspire to, but to achieve that goal, there are a lot of things that have to occur," he said. "Ultimately, the people who are affected are the ones who have to buy into this. They have to agree, absolutely, to conserve and reduce their energy consumption."
There's some distance to go before that attitude becomes ingrained, Green added. "In the meantime, the world's not going to stop. It's still going to need the energy and it will be people like us and projects like ours to provide this stepping stone to that goal in the future."
While the company waits for the new provincial regulations, Green said he and Leson continue to advance the project within the confines of existing policy. "We're keeping aware of the changing policy within the energy milieu," he said. "We're keeping people, governments and government agencies informed of projects like this and we're examining the broad needs of the Powell River area."
While in town, one of the meetings Leson and Green had was with a group of people under the age of 35, who call themselves Emerging Leaders. The group meets about once a month, according to its spokesman Kevin Sigouin, and has had presentations from a range of people, including City of Powell River Mayor Stewart Alsgard, chief administrative officer Stan Westby, Tla'Amin (Sliammon) First Nation Chief Walter Paul, and Dave Formosa, president of the Powell River Chamber of Commerce. "It's an opportunity to hear from people in the know and ask them good questions afterwards," said Sigouin. "It's been really good."
The group wanted to hear from WestPac representatives, Sigouin added. "We had an opportunity to sit down with them, ask them pointed questions, hear them out," he said. "We thought we were going to be talking about WestPac and their plans for Texada, but 75 per cent of our time was debating our society and what we need to do to reduce our energy consumption."