The
BC liberals seem to understand that the opportunity to get BC's natural gas to
the west coast, liquefy it and ship it to Asia is an opportunity similar to
what Alberta cashed in on after they discovered oil. BC has an opportunity that
most jurisdictions never have, a chance for 1000's of jobs and billions in
government revenues.
Question
is, what would an NDP government do with this opportunity? Let's do a quick
comparison:
The
BC Jobs Plan lays out how the Liberals expect to develop the LNG model
1) Greater emphasis on market diversification to increase
the value of BC’s natural gas;
2) Supporting job creation together with industry, educators
and communities;
3) Continued strong leadership on clean energy and
climate change moving forward; and
4) A redefinition of government’s self-sufficiency policy
to ensure BC is well-positioned to power expansion.
Adrian Dix has his LNG
model laid out as well:
1) Appoint an
expert panel to conduct a broad public review of fracking, including public
hearings and consultations with First Nations, local communities, industry,
environmental groups and citizens.
2) Make immediate
changes to protect B.C.’s water resources, including consolidating authority
for water licensing within one public body; improving water mapping, monitoring
and public reporting; and ending the current practice of issuing free water
permits through the Oil and Gas Commission.
3) Extend funding
for the Farmers’ Advocate office to ensure landowners in the natural gas fields
have the support they need to deal with the gas industry.
4) Examine the
province’s Climate Action Plan in order to take into account proposed
expansions in gas development, which will bring more upstream greenhouse gas
emissions.
Even the most fracking cynical person in BC can’t
argue against the fact that royalties from LNG will help every sector of the BC
economy. It is expected to generate trillions of dollars to gov’t coffers over
many years. This would place BC on par with our neighbor to the east in
resource royalties. The next election will dictate how fast that revenue gets
into the tax stream. Companies with billions of dollars to spend will only do
so in a pro-business environment. In the 1990’s under the NDP the policies
created for resource extraction closed down most of the industry. It would
appear the NDP, if elected, are on track to return BC to the days of
bureaucracy. The NDP strategy will force companies to go thru multiple levels
of government, committees, consultations, advocacy offices and First Nations to
get approval on each and every drill site, bridge crossing, pipeline, road and
trail. The environmentalist’s will make erroneous claims that increased expansion
contributes to climate change which will force the NDP to review the development process yet again.
Companies will quietly move away from BC and find other areas of the world that
are friendly to business and we will become a have not province again.
The opposition to LNG extraction is largely based on
the explotation of the media by environmentalists using
misinformation and half-truths. Suzuki Foundation, Wildsight, Sierra Club of BC, Greenpeace and
CPAWS are all hoping that the NDP, if elected, will follow thier ideological views.
The article below provides a look at the US experience
on fracking where it has been used for over 60 yrs. The next election will
decide whether the province and its LNG treasure trove is headed for rags or
riches; ThinkTwice on how you want to move BC forward.
Paul Visentin
ThinkTwice group
Who’s afraid of fracking?
Federal and state environmental officials have given
hydraulic fracturing a clean bill of health. Why do radical environmentalists
continue to wage war on this game-changing technology?
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