Tag Archives: Tom Green

Parties pitch energy plans before B.C. election

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Greens and Conservatives launched competing visions for energy generation this week in contrast to the NDP’s future plans to heat peoples’ homes, fuel cars and run businesses.

All the parties emphasize the need to meet B.C.’s growing energy demands, while keeping rates affordable and fostering First Nations ownership of energy projects — but proposed courses of action vary wildly.

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An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by smell and 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide for its  short-term warming impact on the climate, methane is explosive, toxic  and can make helicopters fall out of the sky. It’s like something out of a superhero movie — or a bad dream.

About half of Canada’s reported methane emissions  are produced by the oil and gas industry, both from regular operations  and leaks. But much of the climate damage caused by the sector’s methane  pollution goes undetected due to weak regulations.

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LNG Canada eyes electrification as planned expansion would send B.C. emissions skyrocketing

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

For more than a decade, successive B.C. governments have thrown their hats behind an industry hellbent on getting gas out of the ground and across the Pacific to Asian markets.  

LNG Canada, a liquefaction and export facility under construction in Kitimat, is poised to be the first project to do so. As the facility inches closer towards a goal of firing up operations in 2025, its partner companies are eyeing investment for an approved expansion, which would double the amount of gas processed at the plant. 

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Canada lays out new regulations for methane emissions from oil and gas

By Cloe Logan, National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault proposed regulations Tuesday that would help Canada cut back on emissions of methane in the oil and gas industry, a powerful greenhouse gas.

He made the announcement alongside John Kerry, the United States’ special presidential envoy for climate, at this year’s United Nations climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The pair said Canada and the U.S. will work together to curb emissions of methane — which is 86 times more powerful than carbon for the first 20 years it exists in the atmosphere — in both countries.

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Canada’s methane emissions significantly underestimated

By Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Methane emissions from upstream oil and gas production are significantly underestimated in Canada, according to a recently published study, confirming what researchers have been saying for years.

“We’re finding that (methane) emissions are at least 1.5 times higher than what’s currently being reported in official inventory reports,” said Katlyn MacKay, lead author of the study.

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