Environmental groups say the province’s approval of a new jetty in Delta, B.C., to facilitate exporting liquefied natural gas is inconsistent with its climate goals.
The FortisBC Tilbury LNG project consists of building a jetty on the south arm of the Fraser River adjacent to the company’s existing Tilbury LNG facility. It will be used to fill ships exporting LNG, as well as to provide fuel for bunkering ships that then refuel ships in other locations that run on LNG.
On March 27, the province announced it had granted the project an environmental assessment certificate with 22 “legally enforceable provincial conditions that must be followed over the life of the project.” However, the province noted that the Tilbury jetty project must still receive federal approval.
If built, FortisBC says it will be the first facility of its kind on the country’s West Coast.
Environmentalist says jetty will disturb salmon habitat
Peter McCartney, a climate campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, said the approval is a “slap in the face” to all those who have opposed the project over the past decade, and that it undermines the province’s own climate commitments.
“Hundreds of people have spoken out against it. The municipalities of Richmond, Vancouver, New Westminster, Burnaby and Port Moody are all opposed to it,” he said.
Earlier this month, McCartney helped deliver a petition to the legislature signed by 400 Richmond residents opposing an expansion to the LNG facility that sits across the Fraser River from them.
In an interview with CBC News after the province announced the approval, McCartney expressed concern over the increase of traffic and noise in the Fraser River when ships come and go. This, he said, will disturb crucial salmon habitat, and by extension put pressure on the endangered southern resident orca population that depend on those fish.
“We cannot keep expanding fossil fuel infrastructure when climate disasters are already wreaking havoc all over our province and all over the world,” he said.
FortisBC says LNG a good option
In a press release, FortisBC said that it had consulted broadly across the region, and that those consultations led them to make changes to the project that would “reduce the potential impact on vegetation, fish, and fish habitat.”
Furthermore, it said that ships using LNG is a better option.
“Using LNG from Tilbury rather than conventional marine fuel reduces GHG emissions by up to 27 per cent, in the very difficult to decarbonize marine sector.”
However, Tom Green of the David Suzuki Foundation said it’s bad business to build new infrastructure for fossil fuels, and companies should be focusing on wind and solar energy — both of which he says are eating into the demand of fossil fuels.
“This is a risky bet to keep locking in a sunset industry that’s damaging the planet.”
In a statement, the foundation pointed to the International Energy Agency’s report titled Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. It states that to reach net zero emissions by 2050, there is “no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply.”
22 environmental conditions
Environment Minister George Heyman and Transportation Minister Rob Fleming say they issued the approval after “carefully considering” the assessment of the project.
The Environment Ministry says in a news release that the jetty will serve ships exporting B.C. liquefied natural gas and other vessels. The province says the ministers’ decision included a condition to compel the jetty to include space for renewable fuels, depending on existing supply and demand.
The 22 environmental conditions include a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emission, Indigenous involvement in project monitoring, and measures to reduce harmful effects on water and air quality.
McCartney said he’s concerned about the power the fossil fuel industry has over the current provincial government, noting that FortisBC lobbyists met with provincial representatives 19 times in the January and February of this year alone.
“And to turn around and approve a project that doesn’t have community support for it. So that is a bad sign for our democracy,” he said.