LNG traffic deemed too hazardous for Inside Passage routeBill Cleverley, Times Colonist, August 14, 2008
Liquefied natural gas tankers have no place travelling up and down the Inside Passage, Capital Regional District directors say.
The CRD yesterday endorsed a
resolution supporting the Powell River Regional District in calling on the federal government to ban LNG tankers from using the Inside Passage -- one of the most heavily travelled waterways in North America.
"In some cases the potential explosion from an LNG tanker is rated one step down from a nuclear explosion," Saanich director Vic Derman said.
"It is extraordinarily significant. We don't want those kinds of vessels in restricted, busy waterways unless you have absolutely no other option and I don't think that's the case here."
A similar resolution has been passed by the Islands Trust.
The resolution, which is to go to the Union of B.C. Municipalities for support this fall, also calls on the provincial government to require no greenhouse-gas emissions be allowed from gas-fired generating plants.
The Comox-Strathcona Regional District passed a resolution last year calling for no greenhouse-gas emissions from generation plants.
CRD directors took the action after hearing from Powell River Regional district chairman Colin Palmer and representatives from environmental groups Texada Action Now and the Dogwood Initiative.
They are all concerned about Alberta-based WestPac's plans to build a LNG terminal and power plant on Texada Island.
The CRD's environment committee earlier had recommended directors not make a decision until hearing from WestPac representatives, but the company opted not to address the board and instead provided a written backgrounder about its plans.
WestPac says the proposed power plant would have a capacity of 600 megawatts, expandable to 1,200. The company expects to bring in one LNG tanker -- about the size of a large cruise ship -- every seven to 10 days in the winter and every 20 to 30 days in the summer months.
Tankers would travel through Juan de Fuca Strait, up Haro Strait and then up the Strait of Georgia to Texada.
The estimated capital cost is $2 billion, and the project would provide 90 to 100 full-time jobs and up to 1,000 jobs during the three-year construction phase, the backgrounder says.
Derman said just the operation of an LNG system by itself produces substantial amounts of methane "which is a climate warming gas that's roughly 29 times as potent as carbon dioxide."
Saltspring Island director Gary Holman noted the resolution does not mention WestPac specifically, but rather is designed "to establish a set of principles under which such a project could proceed."
He said the issues that should be of concern to the board are the generation of greenhouse gases and safety and security.
"This resolution recommends to the province ... that they revise their energy plans so that they make their conditions applying to any fossil-fuel generation the same as for coal -- for zero emissions. That's not impossible, there are technologies, but they come with costs," Holman said.
"These tankers are sailing past our waters; past our neighbourhoods so to speak. There are serious safety and security concerns," he said.
bcleverley@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008
http://tinyurl.com/669e2h
CRD SUPPORTS FIGHT AGAINST TANKER TRAFFIC OFF TEXADA ISLANDNIKKI EWANYSHYN, CFAX 1070 AM, Aug 13, 2008
A SMALL STEP FORWARD TODAY FOR PEOPLE FIGHTING TANKER TRAFFIC CARRYING LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS IN THE WATERS OFF THE BC COAST.
THE CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT IS SUPPORTING A RESOLUTION BY THE POWELL RIVER REGIONAL DISTRICT THAT WESTPAC LNG CORPORATION NOT BE ALLOWED TO BUILD A LIQUID NATURAL GAS FACILITY ON TEXADA ISLAND.
CRD DIRECTOR SUSAN BRICE SAYS THE BOARD IS AWARE OF THE DANGER THAT TANKER TRAFFIC COULD BRING TO THE HARO AND GEORGIA STRAIGHTS. "WE HAVE DETERMINED THAT THERE ARE SUFFICIENT CONCERNS THAT THIS ISSUE NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT BEFORE ANY APPROVALS ARE GIVEN."
CHUCK CHILDRESS, CHAIR OF THE GROUP 'TEXADA ACTION NOW' SAYS IT'S GOOD TO SEE THE SOUTH ISLAND AND GULF ISLANDS SUPPORTING THE FIGHT AGAINST THE TANKER TRAFFIC AND THE FACILITY. "WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. YOU KNOW THE GEORGIA BASIN IS IN FACT A UNIT, NO MATTER HOW MANY LINES YOU DRAW ON IT AND WE HAVE TO LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER."
THE CRD MOTION NOT TO SUPPORT THE FACILITY ON TEXADA ISLAND WILL NOW BECOME A RESOLUTION AT THIS SEPTEMBER'S UNION OF BC MUNICIPALITIES.
THE ULTIMATE DECISION ON BANNING TANKER TRAFFIC ALONG THE COAST LIES WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
- NIKKI EWANYSHYN
http://www.cfax1070.com/newsstory.php?newsId=6046
LNG Opponents Sway CRD
A-Channel News, August 13, 2008
VICTORIA - Opponents of a proposed liquefied natural gas plant on Texada Island have scored a moral victory. .
They've been working over the last year to convince various levels of government to quash a plan to import the gas on tankers.
Today, those opponents got the capital regional district on side.
For the better part of a year, Chuck Childress of Texada Action Now has led the campaign against Vancouver firm Westpac-LNG’s proposal for a $2 billion project.
Westpac wants to sail tankers up the Strait of Georgia, past several communities in the CRD, delivering liquefied natural gas to a terminal that would be built on Texada Island.
Opponents say the proposed project increases the potential for massive fires, explosions, even terrorism.
But that is a far cry from the information Westpac has provided to CRD directors.
The company says bringing another liquefied natural gas to BC means the province will never have to import energy, and that its product poses no risk.
But CRD board members have voted to endorse a proposed ban on LNG tanker traffic in the Malaspina Strait, the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait, and Boundary Passage.
A resolution on the proposed ban will go to the Union of BC Municipalities this fall.
Alliance To Stop LNG Media Release on CRD ResolutionCRD Resolution
