A dozen environmental groups have called on British Columbia to delay plans for its second-largest LNG project because of its impact on federal and state emissions caps.
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They have asked the states to “significantly” extend the current public comment period, which runs from April 27 to May 29, or to revise the environment until further information on federal and state emission caps becomes available. Asked to postpone the evaluation.
“Public comment periods should not be conducted when it is unclear how future laws and regulations will affect what should be considered,” Moss wrote.
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The groups requested a postponement to allow “the time necessary to review project documents and prepare climate and other impact filings for this project.”
Matthew Borghese, spokesman for the BC Environmental Assessment Authority, said the agency has no plans to extend the current public comment period.
“The environmental assessment process will include at least two additional public comment periods,” Borghese wrote. This includes the assessment of greenhouse gases.
“The draft plan proposes that proponents be asked to prepare information that will enable assessments of greenhouse gas emissions in relation to federal and state law,” Borghese wrote.
B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act requires the agency to consider the impact of projects on the province’s greenhouse gas emissions during the environmental assessment process, which can take up to 18 months or more to complete.
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The Nisgaa leadership said the Kushi Lysims project, located in northwestern British Columbia near the Alaskan border, will reduce emissions “substantial” from day one by using the BC Hydro grid for its facilities and carbon dioxide supply. It says it will be zero. Offset management program.
“We are confident that the sustainable and innovative design of the Ksi Lisims LNG project will enable us to meet the government’s new standards,” said Rebecca Scott, spokeswoman for Ksi Lisims LNG.
To electrify the facility, a 95-kilometer transmission line must first be built to the site. Much of it will be beyond the territory of indigenous peoples who have expressed concerns about the environmental and other impacts of construction.
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This includes only emissions from the facility itself.
That number more than doubles if we include the so-called “upstream” emissions generated by hydraulic fracturing and transportation of LNG.
The project is expected to operate for 30 years.
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“Fundamentally, we shouldn’t be doing this,” John Young, an energy transition strategist at the David Suzuki Foundation who also signed the open letter, said of B.C.’s LNG expansion plans. “This is a very strange undertaking…for a government that is serious about moving the climate emergency forward.”
Young said LNG facilities are typically powered by natural gas rather than electricity, leading to an increase in the amount of gas that will need to be extracted from British Columbia.
“We are talking about a massive expansion of hydraulic fracturing,” he said, which he said would contribute to “an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions.”
Young said that virtually all of the gas processed at the facility is intended to be sold abroad.
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“We’re building emissions in Canada and exporting huge amounts of emissions around the world for very few jobs,” he said.
Nisgah’s Rissim administration president Eva Clayton said in a March 7 letter to the B.C. EAO that the Khushi Rissim project is a “cross-generational opportunity” to achieve lasting reconciliation. Stated.
“Nisgaa Nation is committed to structuring the project to comply with BC climate mitigation laws and policies,” Clayton wrote.
— with files from Gord Hoekstra
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