On Monday afternoon, mayor and council heard from two delegations who spoke in defense of the development of the Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) industry in British Columbia. In separate presentations, Gordon Wilson, an advocate for LNG – Buy BC and Captain Stephen Brown, president of the BC Chamber of Shipping, offered up facts on the safety record of the LNG Industry, its high environmental standards and also, potential benefits Bowen Island may enjoy by the growth of this industry.
In the first presentation, Wilson told council that his role as an advocate for LNG BC was initiated by the Premier to work with BC businesses to make sure they are properly informed and positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
“In travelling the province and I’ve travelled the province extensively now, speaking with most of the proponent companies and the more than 800 companies that are directly engaged in this industry, the number one issue that comes up over and over again, is the fact that such a large portion of the population of British Columbia really doesn’t know what’s going on,” said Wilson, adding that by offering “facts” on the LNG industry, he hoped to effectively dispel the myths around it.
In explaining the process of hydraulic fracturing, which is used to extract natural gas from the earth, Wilson explained that rock is fractured deep in the ground by small explosive devises. As the gas seeps up through those cracks, it is captured and piped out as natural gas.
“They take out what they consider impurities, things like propane and methane… natural gas is then sold as natural gas, and propane is sold as propane,” explained Wilson. “So when I hear people say, I’m opposed to this industry because of
Fracking, I get confused somewhat because if they use propane at all, whether it’s in their house or in their barbeque, they’re using fracked gas.”
Wilson went on to explain that natural gas is most safely stored in a cyrogenic state, which liquefies the gas allowing the safe overseas transport of it.
“In its liquid form, it cannot burn, it will not explode, it will not create 1.5 kilometer kill zones. It might start a fire if you get a breach and a mixture of between 5 and 15 percent oxygen, but it certainly won’t incinerate everyone in a 1.5 kilometre radius.”
Wilson added that this kind of information about potentially devastating explosions of LNG tankers is fear-mongering and is causing particular concern among businesses.
“These businesses are your constituents too, and they’re your neighbours,” said Wilson.
In terms of environmental opportunities presented by the LNG industry, Wilson pointed directly to the Woodfibre site as an example.
“The Woodfibre site was a really toxic industrial site,” said Wilson. “But the proponents have come in and decided to put in what is essentially a clean energy site, they have used their capital to clean that site up. That’s a good thing, that’s good news that they’ve used their dollars to clean up a previously toxic site.”
Wilson went on to highlight what he sees as the upside to the development of this industry for Bowen Island.
“Right now there is no natural gas on Bowen. Every Wednesday, the ferry on the hazardous sailings the ferry brings over truckloads of propane. That propane on those trucks is far more volatile and far more explosive than anything that’s going to pass by here in liquid natural gas form. But, it’s used here, in containers behind your homes, you heat your homes you cook with it… while it’s safe, it’s less safe then LNG. And where there’s an opportunity with LNG is, as we develop domestically, to develop the opportunity for more and more people to use natural gas because it’s cheaper, it’s safer, and its cleaner.”
Captain Stephen Brown from the BC Chamber of Shipping started his talk by telling council that like Wilson, he does not advocate for any particular project or company. He explained that shipping, globally, is regulated by the International Maritime Organization based in London, England and those regulations are then taken into the Canada Shipping Act.
“I would like to emphasize that the IMO is responsible for the safety of life at sea and the protection of the marine environments, I would underline that we take that very seriously,” said Brown.
Brown went on to emphasize the environmental improvements that have been made to ships and the world-class environmental standards enforced by Port Metro Vancouver.
“Renewable energy systems are becoming increasingly common on our vessels,” said Brown.
He added that while much has been made of the size of the LNG vessels that will be travelling through BC waters, they are no larger than many of the vessels, including container ships and cruise ships, that travel in these waters now.
“Every passage than an LNG carrier will undertake be endlessly simulated. Each proponent pays for our marine pilots to spend weeks ensuring that the proposed sea passage has been tried and tested before any of this work would begin,” said Brown. “And it is worth noting that Shell as a company, and I’m not advocating for Shell, Shell has been shipping LNG safely for the past 50 years. The industry as a whole has now completed 75,000 voyages successfully.”
In terms of the future of the marine industry, Brown told council that within 30 years, half the world’s vessels will be propelled by LNG, and that this will become a reality for Bowen too, as BC Ferries moves towards LNG powered propulsion for its boats.
Brown also addressed concerns about increased traffic in Howe Sound.
“I’ve mentioned we had 106 vessels in Howe Sound last year. I have many examples I could share with you from around the world but I will just take one, the English Channel…. on a typical day you have 600 commercial vessels in transit or crossing daily. This is, in our view, what we start to call heavy traffic. The port of Rotterdam handles 36,000 ships each and every year. The port of Vancouver handles 3,000. We have lots, and lots, and lots of room to grow, before the density of marine traffic becomes an issue whatsoever.”
Brown also noted, in regards to tourism, that in Saint John, New Brunswick, there is a viewing gallery for tourists who want to watch tankers come in and out of the Canaport LNG terminal. Qatar, he added, is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and has been chosen to host the Fifa World Cup in 2022.
Councillor Gary Ander was reassured that the slow pace at which that the LNG carriers will travel means they will not cause any harmful wake, and that an exclusion zone around the tankers is unnecessary, given the low density of traffic on our coast as well as the fact that the carriers will be escorted by tugs. However, councillor Maureen Nicholson challenged the delegates on the benefits they suggested Bowen island would enjoy from the development of an LNG terminal at Woodfibre.
“I don’t believe LNG is a clean burning fossil fuel, for one thing,” said Nicholson. “And I think that you’re engaging a community on technical arguments; the decision is going to be made at a political level. This means as a political group, we have every right to go ahead and say we do not support the political decision to go ahead with an LNG plant at Woodfibre.”
The conversation wrapped up with a final comment to the delegates by Mayor Murray Skeels.
“LNG has been with us for many, many, years. If it was cheaper and more efficient than propane, why didn’t they replace it a long time ago? In your future presentations you might want to go into a little further detail on if it’s better, if it’s cheaper, if it’s cleaner. The specific plant that we’re talking about, they’re talking about cooling with ocean water. I think that you should probably address that a little more in the future because it’s a process that’s not allowed in other jurisdictions now. Also, the plant itself will generate a considerable amount of CO2 in the cyrogenic process. CO2 can be sequestered as it is in coal plants now and if this is going to be a world class facility, if BC is going to lead the world in this, then there is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how it could be done.”
