Tuesday, February 07, 2012

How much will BC Premier Christy Clark's Liquid National Gas plants cost BC Hydro customers? And are they safe?

Who Pays Huge Power Bills for Clark's Gas Plants?

LNG Tanker - headed for BC waters?
Turning natural gas into liquid sucks electricity. Ratepayers, guard your wallets.

Bill Tieleman's 24 hours/The Tyee column

Tuesday February 7, 2012

By Bill Tieleman

"Fixation on short term corporate profits and short term political gains to the exclusion of longer term planning is a recipe for disaster." 
- David Hughes, geoscientist, on Canada's natural gas exports
There's one big question about the B.C. government's new plan to build three liquid natural gas plants near Kitimat -- how much will this cost BC Hydro customers on their monthly electricity bills?

That's because LNG plants are energy pigs, consuming enormous amounts of power to convert natural gas into a liquefied, transportable form to ship by tankers to Asia.

The electricity needed for just one LNG plant alone is equivalent to that needed by three Catalyst Paper mills -- B.C.'s largest electricity user.

So what BC Hydro consumer should wonder whether LNG will become the Smart Meters of the north -- with expensive BC Hydro costs once again being loaded onto the backs of ratepayers to subsidizeprivate corporate profits.

Safety concerns

And just like the $1 billion Smart Meters program, there are safety questions to investigate further before the province spends untold taxpayer dollars again.

Five past fiery LNG plant accidents have taken hundreds of lives, though industry proponents claims that LNG exports are safe.

Residents of Texada Island banded together to strongly oppose a proposed LNG plant there in 2007 for both safety and environmental reasons.

Premier Christy Clark made another questionable decision last week -- to suddenly reverse the BC Liberal government's 2007 order to make BC Hydro energy self-sufficient by 2016, with power produced in this province.

That policy was ex-premier Gordon Campbell's way to subsidize buying expensive electricity from private Independent Power Producers who built run-of-river plants and other facilities.

The last BC Hydro call for tenders for IPP electricity was priced at $134 per megawatt hour, comparedto between $4 to $52 per megawatt hour for power purchased on the open market, and an average $5.81 per megawatt from BC Hydro's publicly owned dams.

Despite that huge extra cost, BC Hydro is on the hook for obligations of $30 billion in IPP energy purchases over the next 25 years.

Someone -- you the consumer -- has to pay the difference.

Artificially created 'liquid gold' rush

BC Hydro rates are already slated to jump by 16 per cent over three years instead of a planned 32 per cent that drew public outrage.

Campbell's Clean Energy Act forced BC Hydro to plan to have enough power for the province without importing any during any period of worst-case water levels -- both a highly unusual circumstance and an incredibly expensive insurance policy that was unnecessary.

But it created the demand for IPP electricity, since BC Hydro has been prohibited by the BC Liberal government from developing new public power alternatives since 2002, creating what energy author John Calvert called the "liquid gold" rush.

So was that policy simply a temporary way of pumping cash into the IPP sector and always the BC Liberal intention to dump it after massive long-term contracts were signed? Or is it a radical departure from the Campbell doctrine?

Certainly we've seen no public consultation, detailed studies or debate over the issue -- just another flip-flop decision from the premier's office.

Flash forward. Will the government's desperate rush to create only 800 permanent jobs at three LNG plants, and temporarily employ thousands of workers during the eight-year construction phase -- lead it to spend billions subsidizing LNG's big oil companies owners?

Has this government ever wasted money or gone over budget before with its ill-considered plans? 

Smart Meters, Vancouver Convention Centre, 2010 Olympics -- why worry?

China's major stakes

It's also worth noting that the federal Conservative government is crying wolf because some environmental groups opposing the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal to ship heavy crude oil to Kitimat -- also for tanker transport to Asia -- receive minor funding from outside Canada.

Not only is the oil industry overwhelming foreign-owned but corporations outside Canada also control the rapidly developing LNG sector.

PetroChina has major stakes in B.C., partnering with Shell in its global LNG production interests and is part of the consortium hoping to build facilities in Kitimat.

Energy Minister Joe Oliver -- who has led the federal government charge that "foreign radicals" are subverting the Enbridge proposal -- had no problem cozying up to the Chinese Communist government last year in Beijing and offering up Canadian resources.

"We in Canada have the resources that China needs. We are open for business and we are willing to provide their minerals, energy, forestry and mining needs," Oliver told The Globe and Mail after addressing Chinese leaders and business executives.

Left unsaid is that any way you slice it, LNG consumption leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change. Burning B.C.'s LNG will only enhance China's status as the world's biggest GHG emitter.

Bad for our energy and economic security?

Lastly, everyone wants more family-supporting jobs in B.C., which would be created in construction and LNG plant operations.

But British Columbians have to ask how much they are personally willing to pay out of their wallets as a subsidy to highly profitable foreign corporations to create those jobs.

As David Hughes, a geoscientist with 32 years service with the Geological Survey of Canada has recently written:

"Canadians, who after all are the owners of Canada's natural gas resources, are served last when it comes to their longer term energy security and environmental interests. The lure of obtaining prices that are double or triple North American prices through LNG exports is impossible to resist for corporations looking at the near-term bottom line."

"The lure of royalty and lease sale revenue, and jobs building infrastructure and producing gas, is impossible to resist for politicians strapped for cash. This does not bode well for Canada's energy future," Hughes concluded.

And at some point, hopefully sooner than later, we also have to ask whether exporting limited non-renewal energy resources like LNG to support the industrialization of foreign countries' economies is a good long-term strategy.

Giving other countries the energy they need to manufacture value-added products that Canada will import, rather than using that power to do it ourselves, will eventually come back to haunt us.

And it likely won't take long.

.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

These LNG tankers in a very likely "accident" are mini-atom-bombs!

We are not talking about a blast area of a one or two blocks . . . we are talking about complete wipe-out for 2, 3 or 4 kilometers!

Of course that's how you really solve unemployment in BC you destroy the port and the entire city around it . . . lots of dead people means low unemployment numbers.

FURTHER PROOF CHRISTY's BC JOBS PLAN is working.

And why is they suicidal madness happening, because a few greedy bastards living in Point Grey want to make millions of dollars of profit selling our nation's energy to the Communist Plutocrats in China.

If Christy (and His Excellency Gordo) wants LNG sales so bad let them build the god-damn LNG terminal in Point Grey.

For this new form of appeasement . . . we assume all the risks, a few BC high-rollers get rich and a potencial enemy-state gets more energy to use in its campaign to take control of the entire Pacific Rim.

The GREAT SATAN

Anonymous said...

"The great satan"
Agreed! "Imagine there's no Point Grey. Easy if you try."

DPL said...

Who will pay? easy, we will pay and pay and keep on paying

Anonymous said...

Selling 3 dollar gas at 15 dollars is a 5x return .hydro should be at least 25 cents per kw for this drain on bc/Canada peak hydrocarbons.

piker said...

BC Hydro is counting on the Americans to continue to provide around 500 aMW per year post-2024 as a part of the Columbia River Treaty. What happens if the Yanks, as they are wont to do, decide to terminate the treaty and the Canadian Entitlement to downstream power benefits - as is their right?

This is the real reason behind Christy's decision to allow BC to import power.

Anonymous said...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/uk-firm-joins-race-to-export-gas-from-bc/article2330229/

e.a.f. said...

Lets hope that when the tankers blow up it is somewhere several hundred miles from our B.C. coast.

Our politicians are so very happy to sell "our" natural resources to China at bargin basement prices. Why would they want to do business with the Chinese government. The workers are paid extemely low wages, have no job security, have to live in company dormitories, work 12 hrs a day and longer, and put in jail if they try to form a union. The working conditions are horrible.
Chinese workers are little more than slaves in the factories.

The amount of pollution in China is killing Chinese citizens. People who complain about the acid rivers which kill them and their children frequently wind up in jail.

Have a look at some of the pictures on the web with pollution bellowing out of their factories. That pollution makes it to our air space. Try to remember the earth rotates.

Shipping natural gas to China is like shipping all our raw logs and oil. Chinese corporations use it and we don't get any benefits. Canada should not increase its exports of oil and gas or raw logs. These products should be kept in Canada for future generations.

Harper is telling seniors they have to take less in pension money so future generations can have pensions. He fails to mention anything about saving our natural resources for future generations or does he think they won't be there having died from imported pollution.

Anonymous said...

Shipping natural gas to China is like shipping all our raw logs and oil. Chinese corporations use it and we don't get any benefits. Canada should not increase its exports of oil and gas or raw logs. These products should be kept in Canada for future generations.

Hmm. No benfits. No benfits for the workers at the terminals? The transportation companies? The guys in the forest who cut down the trees and truck them to the pond? The boys on the drilling rigs? The suppliers of equipment, all of these workers? (many of whom are union shop)?

Why abandon potential revenue from selling our resources? If so where would the revenue come from to pay for health care etc.?

There simply isn't the number of huge corporations in Canada and BC that the NDP want to tax to take up the differeence.

Makes more sense to sell our resources to achieve better things, but I guess this e.a.c. person is just another Negative Nelson.

and jsut how many foriegn made things are in his and Bill's house?

That were made offshore in Asia?

Quite a few.

Anonymous said...

I fail to grasp the logic of "you own Chinese manufactured goods - therefore you have no choice except to support the firesale of BC's raw resources to China"

Anonymous said...

I guess, if they have gas pipelines, they can have Enbridge pipeline. If the gas tankers are permitted, so will the dirty oil tankers be.

Depending on which country's, Harper can con into accepting the dirty oil, we can end up with hordes of tankers.

Japan had a freighter carrying logs. The ship was caught in one of BC's coast legendary bad storms, off the Northern tip of Vancouver Island. The storm tore the top half on the logs off into the sea. They were very afraid, if the bottom half of the load shifted, the ship would capsize. The ship's captain, put in a distress call. It took several hours, before the rescue got there.

There isn't one iota of a doubt, we will have tanker spills into the sea. Kitimat is a Northern Port. There are hurricane force winds and, 40 to 50 foot wave warnings, many, many times.

However, why would Harper, Alberta and China care? They don't rely on the sea for food. It's only the F.N. and other BC people who do.

Anonymous said...

Interesting companion piece by Vaughn Palmer - China getting feet wet with B.C.'s shale gas.

Keep in mind that all the LNG will be from fracked gas.

It is like nobody remembers Tumbler Ridge.

Anonymous said...

"Japan had a freighter carrying logs. The ship was caught in one of BC's coast legendary bad storms, off the Northern tip of Vancouver Island. "

The ship was hit by a rouge wave, not uncommon. Read the entire article before flailing your arms around.


"The storm tore the top half on the logs off into the sea."

Some of those logs, not all of them.



They were very afraid, if the bottom half of the load shifted, the ship would capsize. The ship's captain, put in a distress call. It took several hours, before the rescue got there.

There isn't one iota of a doubt, we will have tanker spills into the sea. Kitimat is a Northern Port. There are hurricane force winds and, 40 to 50 foot wave warnings, many, many times.

Kitimat itself is not exposed to the open sea. There are channels out to Hecate Strait. There is marine traffic where there are heavy seas. Much of the area offshore has shipping going to and from Asia from/to West Coast ports from Prince Rupert to Long Beach.

Anonymous said...

I fail to grasp the logic of "you own Chinese manufactured goods - therefore you have no choice except to support the firesale of BC's raw resources to China"

THis person obviously does not know the basics of international trade and economics.

Mike Harcourt for example did not go to Japan just to look good in a Kamakazi scarf.

Many electronic and computer products are assembled in China.

Anonymous said...

It's only the F.N. and other BC people who do.

Some F.N. do, but oddly do the Musqueam (South Vancouver), Squamish (North Shore) and Sto:Lo (Chiliwack) rely 100% on the sea for food 100%, 100% of the time like they did previous to the arrival of the Europeans?

If so, why have I seen F.N. at the checkout counter at Save on Foods??

The fact that F.N. in the Lower Mainland rely 100% on the sea for their food is a farce. Much of the salmon they catch is sold off.

As for the Squamish Band, much of their economic activity and wealth comes from their leasing out of Park Royal. Which is good, provided that they share the wealth amongst Band Members equally.

DPL said...

I read today that parts of Alberta is saying that BC needs some of the pipeline action, while others say no way. A bit greedy , but their theory seems to be if BC gets a cut, everyone will be happy

Anonymous said...

100% of the time or nothing at all!

more absolutes from the neocons...

e.a.f. said...

dear annonymous:

e.a.c.; actually it is e.a.f., purchases items made in Canada. Food is purchased at the local farmers' market. If I can not find Canadian made items I will look for American, Australian, N.Z., Japan, Europe, etc. I shop for gifts with local crafters. My soap is made locally.

The benefits are not there for Canadians. Yes there are some jobs but the jobs last only as long as the natural resources. There is no secondary industry from our natural rescources. Those jobs are in other countries.

We once had mills all over Vancouver Island, now they are closed. Some mills in northern B.C. are having difficulty obtaining a reliable source of logs--they are being shipped over seas. It is one of the things the owners of the Burns Lake destroyed mill will take into consideration when deciding to rebuild or not.

The bitamen oil is shipped our of country, raw. It is refined in texas. Now please explain to me why it isn't refined in Canada. They are planning on expanding refineries in Texas if they can get the Keystone pipeline.

Canadians don't "own" these natural resources. they are owned by multi national corporations. All we do is charge royalites for the raw materials exported out of Canada.

Alberta does charge royalties for its oil but they are amongst the lowest in the world. There are also a lot of health and enviornmental issues with the tar sands or haven't you turned on a tap in those areas lately. You run the water and then set a match to it. It lights up real nice. I guess you could call that a benefit, water and heat all in one poisonous mess.

The royalties (stumbage fees) have always been low in B.C. They were low enough that American producers were constantly suing B.C. producers over it. During campbell's tenure he passed regulations which made it even cheaper to ship the raw logs out of B.C.

As to workers for these resources, yes they are there but in the Alberta oil fields China has already begun bringing in workers from China. With their additional buy ins of these companies we can expect more Chinese workers.

A new coal mine which opened in B.C. had 42 positions available. Who got the jobs? The workers are being brought in from China on work visas. They were given a 4 wk course to bring them up to B.C. mining requirements & another 4 wks of english language training.

As to benefits, many of these jobs are non union. The only reason workers are well paid is because the employers are concerned the unions will move in.

One of the reasons the Americans have such a high jobless rate is because they are importing too many goods from other countries & Canada is no different. Have you tried to purchase a kettle made in Canada lately. I have and can;t find one. The closest I can find is either made in Japan, Europe or a cast iron one made by Lodge in the U.S.A.

I am not a negative person. I just remember when Canada had a manufacturing sector. That in the mid 70s I was making $25K a yr. and now my friends' 20-30 something kids are making the same amount.

There has been an incredible shift in money in canada. It is concentrating in the top 1%. If corporations were taxed at the same rate they were in the 1960/70s Canada most likely would not have the deficet it does today.

Anonymous said...

Looks like CC answered your question even though Olsen attempted a forearm shiver on the questioner.

Do those people really believe they are competent, capable or qualified to run a government?

I wish yo would go after her on the Okanagan National Park controversy. She claims to have 'data' that is contrary to generally accepted public opinion. Why would she be opposed to a National park here?

Anonymous said...

I live in Dawson Creek and most of the gas field jobs in North East BC are held by Albertians. The BC goverment need to stop giving away our resourses and our jobs . The resourse of BC belong to the people of BC not Alberta . Shame on the BC goverment. The oil patch is designed to come into and make sure all the money is funneled back to Calgary . While our safety and enviroment is threatend destroy our enviroment. The OGC is more worried about protecting the oil companies than protecting the residents of BC . 4 Major gas blow outs inthe last five years in my area . ,