• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 29, 2023
Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax May 29, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 29, 2023
UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety May 29, 2023
Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village May 29, 2023
Next
Prev

B.C. Natural Gas Boom Fuels Alberta Tar Sands/Oil Sands Production

August 21, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/

Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac

44
SHARES
 

The “energy dispute for the ages” over the Trans Mountain pipeline has obscured the role of British Columbia’s natural gas industry in fueling tar sands/oil sands production in Alberta, resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt revealed earlier this month in a post for The Tyee.

“In the last 10 years, B.C. has effectively become a preferred supplier to its neighbour the oilsands powerhouse, a reality with grim implications for the environment and economy in Canada’s two westernmost provinces, to say nothing of our global climate,” writes Parfitt, who works in the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “Much of that out-of-sight, out-of-mind energy flow is also, paradoxically, heavily subsidized by the B.C. government.” But “you wouldn’t know that by looking at most media accounts.”

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

That production became the “giant elephant in the room” in the epic confrontation between B.C. and Alberta over completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, Parfitt contends. “Heavy oil production in Canada’s petro province of Alberta is powered, in part, by a glut of cheap natural gas in North America, which gas producers in B.C. have helped to create,” he writes. “B.C. is also helping to prop up Alberta’s oil industry by shipping it lots of extremely valuable ‘gas liquids’—byproducts of natural gas which are essential to dilute heavy oil or bitumen so that it can move more readily through pipelines.”

That relationship makes the Alberta tar sands/oil sands Canada’s biggest natural gas user, accounting for 25% of total consumption. Over the decade ending in 2017, B.C.’s gas exports to Alberta increased 230%, driven in large part by lavish provincial subsidies to encourage natural gas production.

“Without B.C., Alberta’s oilsands producers would have had to ramp up condensate shipments from the U.S. to make up the difference,” he writes. “But here’s where the irony of the B.C. government’s objection to the Trans Mountain project grows even thicker. Like all of that Alberta-bound natural gas, the lucrative gas liquids heading to Alberta are used to prop up the petro province’s heavy oil industry. They are essential in allowing thick, unrefined Alberta oil and bitumen to move through pipelines. Paradoxically, B.C.’s eastern-bound gas liquids could one day facilitate the westward movement of diluted bitumen through that new pipeline that Ottawa and Alberta are so intent on building,” over B.C.’s sustained objections.

Meanwhile, natural gas subsidies have pulled billions of dollars out of provincial coffers, and the activity they support “carries with it enormous ecological costs, almost all of which are borne by Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities located in the northeast region,” Parfitt writes. Those impacts include “stunning and repeated violations of provincial laws”, dozens of unlicenced dams built for “increasingly intense” natural gas fracking operations, possible groundwater contamination at hundreds of wells, accumulating financial liabilities at abandoned sites, and “disturbing evidence of methane leaking into the atmosphere at numerous gas well sites and wreaking climatic havoc. Given this, it is entirely conceivable that if the day ever came when a major LNG facility—or more accurately, a liquefied fracked gas plant—was built in B.C., the greenhouse gas emissions associated with that gas would put it on par with coal in terms of carbon emissions.”

Parfitt’s analysis looks at the secrecy surrounding B.C.’s natural gas subsidies, the economic consequences of a natural gas glut, and mounting efforts by Montney region producers to get their “landlocked” fracked gas product to coastal Kitimat for liquefaction and export.



in Canada, Energy Politics, Energy Subsidies, Pipelines / Rail Transport, Shale & Fracking, Sub-National Governments, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Martin Davis/Facebook
Carbon Levels & Measurement

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 29, 2023
289
Neal Alderson/Twitter
Drought & Wildfires

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2k
York Region/flickr
Heat & Temperature

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
191

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2k
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 29, 2023
289
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 29, 2023
191

Waste Heat from Quebec Data Centre to Grow 80,000 Tonnes of Veggies Per Year

May 29, 2023
82
pixabay

Anti-Mob Laws to Prosecute Fossils, Kudos for Calgary, 113M Climate Refugees, Orcas Fight Back, and a Climate Dictionary

May 29, 2023
194
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
313

Recent Posts

Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
54
kpgolfpro/Pixabay

Community Wind Farm Earns Support, Generates Income in German Village

May 29, 2023
47
Pexels/pixabay

Engineers Replace Sand in Concrete with Disposable Diapers

May 29, 2023
26
Sol y Playa condo, Rincón, Puerto Rico

Storms, Sea Level Rise Intensify Conflicts Over Public Beach Access

May 29, 2023
40

U.S. Megadrought Brings Private Water Brokers Into Focus

May 28, 2023
39
FMSC/Flickr

Waive Debt to Unlock Urgently Needed Adaptation Funds, Researchers Urge

May 27, 2023
30
Next Post
Dawn Ellner/flickr

Trump Climate Plan Would Cause 1,630 Premature Deaths Per Year, Multiple Health Impacts, EPA Admits

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}