B.C. Premier Christy Clark, left, and Roy Morris, Nee Tahi Buhn Indian Band Chief, add their signatures to a Benefit Agreement at the International LNG Conference in Vancouver on Feb. 25, 2013.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
A British Columbia conservation group says proposed liquefied natural gas plants in the Kitimat area will burn up to two-and-a-half times more natural gas than is consumed in Metro Vancouver annually.
The report, released by SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, says just three proposed plants in the district on B.C.'s northern coast will collectively burn 60 per cent of all the natural gas consumed annually in B.C.
The B.C. Liberal government has said the LNG industry in the province will be the cleanest in the world, but the report says the Kitimat plants will produce a carbon footprint three times larger than other LNG plants currently operating.
The report suggests that carbon and other pollution emissions would be greatly reduced if the LNG plants were driven with electricity as opposed to natural gas.
The government recently commissioned a study to examine airshed quality issues in the Kitimat area, an airshed described as tunnel-like and bordered by mountains that traps air for long periods of time.
Premier Christy Clark recently said B.C.'s trillion-dollar LNG economic opportunity must be grasped by the province and barriers to its progress are not needed at this time.