Directors vote for ship ban

Laura Walz – Editor
Powell River Peak
05/29/2008

Company president says fuel safe to transport

Powell River Regional District (PRRD) directors have passed a motion calling for a ban on LNG (liquefied natural gas) tankers in the Strait of Georgia and Malaspina Strait.

The motion, which passed unanimously at the May 22 board meeting, also asks the provincial government to require zero greenhouse gas emissions from new gas-fired electricity generation stations.

WestPac LNG Corporation has proposed a combined LNG import terminal and natural gas-fired electrical generation facility on the north end of Texada Island.

The board's motion came in response to lobbying from Texada Action Now (TAN), a community organization opposed to WestPac's proposal.

TAN had asked the regional board to adopt a motion similar to one passed by the then Comox-Strathcona Regional District in 2007 which asked BC's Premier Gordon Campbell to extend provincial policy requiring 100 per cent carbon sequestration to all fossil fuel-fired projects in the province, including any liquid natural gas electricity generating facilities. PRRD directors voted last year not to adopt a similar motion.

"We had a lot of problems with that Comox Valley proposal," said Colin Palmer, PRRD board chairman and Electoral Area C director. "We just didn't like it at all, that was part of the problem for us."

Richard Fletcher, a TAN member, drafted a proposed motion for PRRD directors, Palmer explained. "I thought it was very well thought out and that kind of moved the mountain as far as I was concerned, because it made all sorts of references to the BC Energy Plan and that made a lot more sense than anything that came out of Comox."

Dave Murphy, Texada Island director, expressed his gratitude to the board for passing the motion and to TAN members. "I would also ask that council bring a similar motion forward to your committee-of-the-whole for adoption," he said, addressing Sandi Tremblay and Myrna Leishman, City of Powell River directors on the PRRD board.

Directors also passed two others motions to be forwarded to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) at its annual convention in the fall. One states that the UBCM urge the provincial government, as part of achieving the BC Energy Plan, to require zero greenhouse gas emissions from new gas-fired electricity generation stations.

The other motion states the UBCM urge the federal government to ban the passage of LNG tankers in the waters of the Malaspina and Georgia straits.

Chuck Childress, TAN chairman, said his group was encouraged by the board's motions. "The regional district is taking a lead role in addressing the issue of LNG tanker traffic and greenhouse gas emissions in the Georgia Basin," he said. "I think it demonstrates to WestPac and to government at all levels that the Powell River Regional District doesn't want the project."

The PRRD motion also states that the regional board will seek support for these initiatives from other Vancouver Island and mainland coastal communities potentially impacted by WestPac's import plans.

Stu Leson, president of WestPac LNG, said the company is in support of most of the resolution. "There was an affirmation that British Columbia should become self-sufficient in electricity generation, which we agree with," he told the Peak. "We also think a plan like ours is going to be required to make British Columbia self-sufficient."

WestPac plans to have zero net emissions from its generating plant, Leson also said. "Our design will include a plan to be a zero net emitter of carbon," he said. "We still see natural gas as being a critical part of power generation and actually a clean fuel for new power generation."

However, the company doesn't agree with the part of the resolution that calls for a ban of LNG tankers. "We don't understand why they would be proposing that to the government at this time," he said. "The fact is that LNG is a very safe fuel to transport. It presents no environmental impact if there is a spill. It's natural gas in liquid form. If there is a spill, once it touches the water, it begins to vaporize and will slowly vaporize with no residual environmental impact whatsoever."

Interested readers can read the entire PRRD resolution on TAN's website, www.texadaactionnow.org.