Group demands LNG moratorium

An organization has called for no liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility anywhere on the BC coast./

JUST SAY NO: Denise Reinhardt, spokeswoman for Malaspina Communities for Public Power, presented a resolution to New Democratic Party (NDP) MLA Nicholas Simons [middle], who represents Powell River-Sunshine Coast, and MLA Shane Simpson, the NDP's environment critic, during a rally on November 14. The resolution calls for no liquefied natural gas facility anywhere on the BC Coast.

Laura Walz
Powell River Peak
November 22, 2007

An organization has called for no liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility anywhere on the BC coast.

Denise Reinhardt, a spokeswoman for Malaspina Communities for Public Power (MCPP), presented a resolution to New Democratic Party (NDP) MLA Nicholas Simons, who represents the Powell River-Sunshine Coast riding, which calls for no LNG terminal and plant on Texada Island or "anywhere on the coast of BC."
Reinhardt made the presentation at a rally on Wednesday, November 14 at Simons' office on Marine Avenue. About 80 people attended the event, which was organized by MCPP. People carried signs that read, "Develop Renewable Energy Sources Now," "Say No to LNG," "Fight for Our Power," and "It's not Safe for the East, It's Not Safe for the West."

Shane Simpson, the NDP's environment critic and MLA for Vancouver-Hastings, also attended the rally.

WestPac LNG, an Alberta-based private company, has proposed a combined LNG import terminal and natural gas-fired electrical generation facility on the north end of Texada Island. Plans for the $2-billion project include a marine jetty, onshore LNG storage tanks, and an interconnection with the existing Terasen natural gas pipeline and a transmission line connecting to the existing Cheekye-Dunsmuir line, which supplies power to Vancouver Island.

WestPac had planned to submit a project description to the province's environmental assessment office this fall, but announced recently it wouldn't be proceeding with the application until late next year.

Chuck Childress, Texada Action Now (TAN) chairman, a group opposed to the facility, told the crowd that TAN did not side with any political party. "We look at it as an apolitical fight," he said. "The plan itself does not meet any political party's vision of fighting climate change."

Rather than helping Texada's economy, Childress said the proposal was hurting it because it was scaring people away. "The very threat of an LNG plant has put a very cold bath on the real estate industry and housing industry on Texada immediately, because people don't want to come there and invest," he said. "When you're looking for a healthy economy, even if you're looking for growth, you don't have to have a great big smokestack. That may be the way of the past, but it's certainly not the way this coast should be developing."

Simpson agreed that there was nothing about the project that could be considered green energy. He also said that NDP MLAs have asked questions about WestPac's proposal, but the government has said it can't answer any questions because it is just a proposal. "They may be saying we won't be talking about this until we get an application," he said. "I believe there's been a nod and a wink from the government here to WestPac to say, 'Bring this project forward and when the time comes, we'll let you go ahead.' Nobody puts $2 billion on the table potentially and says we're going to build without having a pretty good idea that the people who have to rubber stamp it at the end are going to give the rubber stamp."

WestPac has backed off for a year, Simpson added, only because of the work of the people in the community who oppose it. "The people in the community deserve all the credit for that," he said. "But as you know, they have backed off for now, but they have not gone away."