LNG Debate, Facts Versus BC Liberal Fiction....NDP`s Norm MacDonald

Today at the British Columbia Legislature....The people`s house(Grant G)

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N. Macdonald: I rise to speak on Bill 6, the Liquefied Natural Gas Income Tax Act.

That was interesting. I'm not sure the minister actually read the bill if you're talking about the revenues that you still are trying to lay out in front of British Columbians. This bill is a year and a half late coming, and here it is. The reality is here before us to contrast with the frankly ridiculous rhetoric around LNG from this minister and from the Premier in particular, but really from all members — ridiculous rhetoric.

I would invite you to look at the bill and actually look at the numbers that we are talking about with this tax measure. The one thing that the B.C. Liberals needed to do in the so-called race for LNG was this bill. It's a year and a half late and a dollar short.

[1625]

In fact, it's more than a dollar short. The bill — this is it. This is the 2013 B.C. Liberal campaign in the flesh, and it sure looks different than what B.C. Liberal members promised to British Columbians. It looks a lot different.

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The bill…. This is it. This is the 2013 B.C. Liberal campaign in the flesh, and it sure looks different than what B.C. Liberal members promised to British Columbians. It looks a lot different.

The B.C. Liberals ran on a promise. Before we get any further with this bill, let's just remember some of the things that were talked about: 100,000 jobs created by LNG, $1 trillion in economic activity. It ends the sales tax. It gets rid of $68 billion in debt. It creates a $100 billion prosperity fund, the first LNG plant by next year and 12 to 17 LNG plants.

That is completely, completely missing in this bill. This is the one bill that accomplishes that. The irony here is if I was to keep my campaign promise, I'd vote for this bill, and I do. This is exactly what I said we were likely to get. The sort of fiscal framework that is here is exactly what I said in my campaign and my colleagues said in their campaigns was likely going to happen.

It is the B.C. Liberal MLAs…. You were the ones who promised the $100 billion dollar prosperity fund. I looked for the Minister of Finance's promises on this. I could not find them. He is the one that is the most careful with what he said. Even in his speech here he didn't enter into the bluster of the minister of LNG, because he knows the reality. I would invite you to actually look at the numbers and see how ridiculous your campaign promises were, and understand that if you vote for this bill, you are breaking every one of those promises.

So read it. Read the bill and actually understand what you're voting for here. It is not my promises that are broken; it is your promises, and the Premier's promises, and the bluster of the minister of whatever — LNG, or whoever that was that was up in front of us — that was supposed to be giving us a somewhat sophisticated accounting of what this is.

I saw no sophistication. I saw no understanding of the complexity of this issue from that minister, which is disturbing. That's our best man on the job? Wow. That is a disturbing, disturbing concept for British Columbians.

You know, the B.C. Liberal candidates…. If you parroted the Premier's wild claims, then I am sure you can claim to be ill-informed. Fair enough. But if you weren't ill-informed, then you are not honest about the possibilities here. That's the reality. This bill confirms that clearly.

The thing is, I can actually vote for this and keep my promises. You can go, and you can look. They're on line — the debates we had, where the B.C. Liberal candidate was on and on about $100 billion this and no sales tax. I was going: "No. These are the actual possibilities that are available to us." That's what I see actually in this bill.

Look at some of these claims — 100,000 jobs claim. Members should read the Grant Thornton report. You should read it if you're serious about this job. The B.C. Liberals, the government, told Grant Thornton that they had to use certain assumptions. They said that you have to use the number of five LNG plants. Well, okay. Is there any basis for five rather than six or seven or three? No. It's an arbitrary number.

Then the B.C. Liberals said to Grant Thornton: "You have to use the number 2,400 as the number of jobs that would be provided by those five LNG plants and the pipelines needed to supply them." Did that number come from anywhere real? No. It was a made-up number.

Then the B.C. Liberals told Grant Thornton that they were required to use a multiplier of 30 for the indirect and induced jobs for each direct job. So that's the Grant Thornton…. Have a look at it and read it — a multiplier of 30. Just so you understand, a committee of the House of Representatives in the United States made similar reports. Their multiplier was 3.5. This is a credible group that instead of using a multiplier of 30, used a more realistic number of 3.5.

So the 100,000-person claim is completely not factual. It is not factual. You wouldn't have to look very hard to actually understand that. So if you are doing your job, have a look at that report and the Ernst and Young report as well. Look at the front, where they say, "Hey, all we're doing is taking numbers the B.C. Liberals gave us and doing the math. Don't blame us for everything else."

[1630]

But what I can say to members

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have a look at that report and the Ernst and Young report as well. Look at the front, where they say: "Hey, all we're doing is taking numbers the B.C. Liberals gave us and doing the math. Don't blame us for anything else."

What I can say to members: "If you took your job seriously, you would actually have a look at that." B.C. Liberals say it's 30. U.S. House of Representatives say one-eighth of that amount is a multiplier. There's something completely dishonest about throwing around fake multipliers, fake numbers of LNG plants.

Let's just use common sense here. An operating LNG plant employs 120 people on average. It's like a pulp mill. In fact, Skookumchuck, which is an average-sized pulp mill, employs 290 employees in my riding. That is one LNG plant — 120. So when the minister stands up and asks us to believe that five of those change everything in British Columbia, in Canada, at what point do you say that's ridiculous and irresponsible for a minister to say that? 

I think you would have said it a long time ago, right?

Let's go to the finance side and actually look at this bill. This tax bill imposes on an LNG plant, according to the Minister of Finance, as follows — and you can look on page 12 of the minister's briefing: "Six to eight years after the LNG plant is built and operating." This government promised 2015. We are nowhere near 2015 for an opening. So if one does open, then six to eight years after it is built and operating you get between $100 million and $125 million. That is the type of money that we're talking about with this bill, okay?

It sounds big to most people — I get it — until you understand that the annual operating budget of this province is — what? — $44 billion. As well, you have capital spending that varies year to year. We are talking about huge sums when you compare it to the tax that comes with this bill from an LNG plant — huge sums and a massive disparity. How does $125 million per year starting next decade get rid of the province's debt, which is $69 billion now, and it's growing at a record rate. In fact, for this Premier it has gone up, in her short term, $15 billion or $16 billion. The Premier.... On top of that there's another $100 billion in financial obligations.

These B.C. Liberals ran on the notion that this bill here would eliminate the debt; $125 million per LNG plant starting six to eight years after a plant is built and operating gets rid of $69 billion. Now, if there's any thinking person on that side that's listening to this, explain how that is going to work. You must know it's impossible. So if you vote for this bill, you are putting into place the reality that is at complete odds with what you ran for in the last election — complete odds. Not me. This is what I said approximately.... This is what was going to happen, right?

The provincial sales tax. Wow, the provincial sales tax. We're going to get rid of the provincial sales tax with this — $100 million to $125 million six to eight years from now, with an LNG plant giving you between $100 million and $125 million. Do the math on that; $6 billion per year comes in — provincial sales tax. Not only that, we're also going to get rid of the debt and contractual obligations. Okay.

These B.C. Liberals said this. They said $125 million per LNG plant collected six to eight years after they are up and operating will also lead to a $100 billion prosperity fund. The Premier said it, like two weeks ago, about the prosperity fund. Again, just do the math on it. We are going to take this $100 million to $125 million per LNG plant in six to eight years, and somehow you get rid of the debt. You get rid of the provincial sales tax. You get rid of any need to worry about money ever in the future because you have a $100 billion prosperity fund.

[1635]

If B.C. Liberals were

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get rid of the provincial sales tax. You get rid of any need to worry about money ever in the future because you have a $100 billion prosperity fund. So if B.C. Liberals were honest, they would vote against this bill, because it doesn't come close to getting you there.

This was always dishonest, to me, for the B.C. Liberals to promise untold billions, and we ended up with a bill that gives us a relative pittance. The irony is that that works for me. This is what I said was the reality. This is the reality.

On page 4 of the minister's LNG income tax briefing documents, the B.C. Liberals try to explain how they got it all wrong. I would invite members to go and look at the briefing documents. They're there, page 4.

Now, what was not known years ago? What is the big surprise that we see on page 4, and how big a surprise was it to anybody who knew anything about the natural gas markets? None of these factors are not there as issues in world journals from five, six, seven years ago. It was simple, and I thank the library for doing it. I just asked them: "Could you go back five, six, seven years and send me articles from around the world on the LNG issue?" They did. They were fantastic about it.

What do you see? All the factors that apparently surprised the Minister of Finance are there in articles. They're not new. This was always a very fluid market. Pricing was all over the place. The factors that were laid out are not surprises, really. The $400 billion pipeline deal between China and Russia — it is regularly predicted. They're talking about how long it's taking to get to that deal. Now, the actual day it was announced — that was a bit of a surprise. But that they were working on that deal — no surprise at all.

Other central Asia natural gas plays. The pipelines to China. Turkmenistan is already China's biggest supplier of natural gas and plans to double exports to China by 2020. China's reserves are well known. That's not new. Australia, Qatar, East Africa, U.S. LNG activities — they were all well known. People here know that natural gas prices fell dramatically in North America over the past decade as new techniques increased North American natural gas supply. Our critic actually spoke about the topic, unlike the minister responsible for liquefied natural gas, who put no content towards the bill. There was a tremendous amount of content in what our critic said.

Henry Hub is the North American pricing tool. Asia uses the Japanese Crude Cocktail, too. It's a tool that was oil-based, and therefore, there were pricing differences between North America and Asia, which you could take advantage of if we could get our natural gas to Asia. As members here should know, to transport across the ocean on ships, it has to be condensed, so natural gas is liquefied by cooling it to minus 161. To build the liquefication plants, there is a need to invest billions, and it takes a fairly long time to get them up and going. There are pipelines as well.

The price differential between North America and Asia is the key. If prices in Asia get to around $10 per million Btu, then the economics do not work for the B.C. LNG industry. That's something the government can't control. It's just the reality that we likely face. Most agree that that's about the price point that's important.

For a while we were at $18 per million Btu in Asia, but that was always ephemeral. That was always something that we knew was moving. A spike in Chinese demand compounded by the temporary shutdowns of the Japanese nuclear program following the tsunami and the Fukushima problems — all of these were things that caused a spike in prices in Asia. But that pricing difference window, I think most would agree, has for the most part passed, and we are at the $10 per million Btu mark in Asia now or close to it.

None of that should be a surprise to anyone who was informed about these markets. Even a casual observer should know that. As far back as 2011, contracts into Asia based on Henry Hub pricing were taking place rather than JCC. It goes back as far as 2011.

[1640]

The Premier on February 2013 told a conference that we would get $250 billion in tax

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on Henry Hub pricing was taking place rather than JCC. So it goes back as far as 2011.

The Premier, in February 2013, told the conference that we would get $250 billion in tax revenue from LNG in the decade ahead. At that conference.... It was not only that it would get rid of the sales tax; it would create a $100 billion prosperity fund. It was even cutting personal income tax and getting rid of the provincial debt. That was what the B.C. Liberals ran on.

This bill brings in $100 million to $125 million per year per LNG plant, six to eight years after it is built. That is the reality, and you cannot move past those numbers. You cannot get anywhere close to what the Premier continues to claim and, presumably, the LNG minister continues to claims and reality. These things never will fit together.

If you as the B.C. Liberal.... If you vote for this, then you are not getting half of what you promised. You're not getting a quarter. You are not getting one-thousandth of what you went to the doorstep and promised people if they would vote for you. That is the reality with this bill. 

So there you are. You are literally taking one-thousandth of what you promised in the last election. It's like thud, thud. This is it. Well, okay.

You know, with Bre-X — if you're from my generation, you remember Bre-X — it all fell apart when the reality became clear. So an election's like a sales pitch, right? It's all words, all hope. It's really exciting, especially when the sales pitch includes salting the claims, which is an awful lot what took place there. But in the end with Bre-X, there was no gold, and here there is no end to sales tax, there is no $100 billion prosperity fund, and there is no end to — what is it? — $168 billion if you combine the debt with the contractual obligations. You know, there's no gold. That's the reality.

It is just a bill that gets, if it's successful, and we.... You hope it's successful. It's a marginal amount of money.

Here's the problem that I have with the initiative. There's something wrong, first, that as a governing body so much of our discussion, so much of our conversation here is built around complete fantasy. We should be talking about things that are real. The only way that we move forward in a meaningful way is if the debate is intelligent and honest. This debate, especially when the Premier launches into flights of fantasy, is anything but. We need to have honest, honest debate.

You need to not just focus on something that really is not going to produce the results that are claimed. It should be one of many things that this government pursues. If you look at the list of missed opportunities, it's disturbing what you see.

With forestry, where I was the critic, there were so many things that we could be doing in forestry that would be good for the economy. I talked about an LNG plant being equal to a pulp plant. It's in some cases equal to a normal mill. In Nanaimo shutting down that mill — that's 100 jobs that we had. All we had to do was try to find a way to make that work.

What about Harmac? I see the member from Nanaimo.... Understand with Harmac that there is a need to keep that integrated industry moving, and it wouldn't take much. There was a government that created that integrated industry, and there should be a government that protects it. Those are real jobs that can be protected.

There are jobs in reforestation that we don't take advantage of. There are jobs getting accurate inventory. There are jobs available with new products, all exciting, that should not just be forgotten about because we're chasing something that, while it offers some opportunity, is nowhere near what this government claims it is.

[1645]

There are opportunities in forestry, and I've had the pleasure to become the critic for mining. It was an unfortunate time to step in, in many ways, with Mount Polley, but as a critic for mining, it's a wonderful opportunity to go and see what's going on in the province. There are some exciting things. I've been fortunate. I mean, Imperial, Teck, Nyrstar, Hillsborough —  they've been tremendous about showing me what they have.

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a critic for mining, it's a wonderful opportunity to go and see what's going on in the province. There's some exciting things. I've been fortunate. Imperial, Teck, Nyrstar, Hillsborough: they've been tremendous about showing me what they have.

What are the things that they're looking for? Well, they want permitting to come faster. They want, actually, compliance, inspections — these things — to be done properly. But the government doesn't do them properly. The government hasn't done them properly. Instead, there is this focus on a fantasy of five, six, 12…. I don't even know what the LNG minister said was the possibility, but it's detached from reality. I do know that. I think anybody who follows this knows that it's detached from reality.

What about other opportunities with LNG? What about other opportunities? Because there are some. That natural gas is there; the price is low. There is the opportunity in Revelstoke, for instance, to replace propane with LNG. There are other communities. For instance, while we're sending natural gas to China, my communities — Invermere, Canal Flats, Golden — don't have natural gas. Now, the economics just possibly aren't there, but there are possibilities. Maybe that is a good way to build the economy here locally.

But for that to take place, there would have to be a venue for intelligent debate on some of these issues. I would say that this is one of the biggest failures for this government, that its walk of fantasy of talking about numbers that are completely unreal means that this House cannot have an honest debate — let's be frank — about skills training, an honest debate about forest policy, about mining. All of those are impossible because the government has to stick to this fantasy of $100 billion prosperity funds and no sales tax.

The minister has said we'd be the envy of all jurisdictions if we didn't have a sales tax. Well, Alberta doesn't have a sales tax — right? There are other jurisdictions that don't have MSP. In fact, I think all of them don't have MSP. There are lots of other jurisdictions that are doing just fine. I bet a debate on potash in Saskatchewan or a debate on oil policy in Alberta would not be this devoid of fact from the leading minister and the leader of the government. I cannot imagine that there's any other jurisdiction that has such ridiculous statements made by people who should know better.

Let's just come to the essence of this. The essence of it is, as a bill…. It's on the public record. You can actually…. I'm sure you've got 200 or 300 people that watch to see if we say anything stupid so you can retweet it. Actually, I would invite those public servants that B.C. Liberals have in such great numbers to actually go…. You can go on websites where they still have the debates that we had from the 2013 election. What you will see is me and other members of this House basically saying that LNG is something that has potential. It has potential but the challenges are real. The challenges are real, and one simply has to work towards this, dare I say, one practical step at a time. You just need to do that work — and fair enough.

I guess, as an election promise, that's a tough sell, but that is the reality. That's the reality that this bill represents.

So, Members, if you're serious about your job, look at the numbers. Look at the pages that are there in front of you in the Minister of Finance's own presentation. Look on page 4, on page 12. Six to eight years after one LNG plant is built, you get $100 million to $125 million. How does that get you to getting rid of the debt of $69 billion? How does that get rid of the sales tax of $6.7 billion per year? How does that give you a $100 billion prosperity fund? All of that really is, frankly, ridiculous.

So here we are. This bill will proceed. I think the essence of it is really in the detail.

[1650]

I will say a couple things about the Minister of Finance. First off, as I said, I did look for him making those outlandish quotes, and they may be there. I couldn't find them, so it seems that he is a bit more wedded to reality than

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finance.

First off, as I said, I did look for him making those outlandish quotes, and they may be there. I couldn't find them. It seems that he is a bit more wedded to reality than the Premier, but okay. That's one thing. I didn't hear it in his speech. As well, I think that, given that, he's a bit more straightforward in terms of the reality than others.

We have an opportunity. It is an opportunity that we need to take advantage of but not to the exclusion of all others. As I said, for this bill, it pretty well matches what I thought would happen. For B.C. Liberals, with this, it is the end of any chance that you are going to come close to your election promises. 

I just don't think that matters to you at all, frankly, but let's say that it did. You might want to read this. You might want to ask a few tough questions to the people that were telling you to talk about $100 billion prosperity funds, no sales tax, getting rid of the debt. I mean, all of that was something that's simply never going to happen. With that, here we are. I look forward to the work that will be done in committee stage by our critic.

The other thing I'd like to say is I do know and I'd like to recognize that the Minister of Finance did set up a number of opportunities for members to be informed on this bill. I think that that needs to be acknowledged. It should happen as a matter of course. It doesn't always. In this case I think that that's important to acknowledge as well.

With that I take my place, and I look forward to the debate as we go on here

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(And in other LNG news, guess what LNG Canada is saying about Shell`s proposed LNG plant...on how much taxation they will pay British Columbia...
Shell Canada will B.C. "$94 million dollars per year" during construction and a whopping $15 million dollars per year once in operation....At that rate Brtish Columbia could have a 1000 LNG plants and still never come close to the BC Liberal`s outlandish election promises...Grant G)

"Though those taxes will fall to$15 million annually once in operation, according to LNG Canada"

read the details here


 http://www.vancouversun.com/business/natural-gas/Canada+boasts+green+characteristics+Kitimat+project/10350532/story.html

($15 million per year, let`s see, 10 years at $15 million is $150 million....30 years $450 million...MSP premiums, a tax no other province has brings in $2 billion per year.....Yea..BC Liberals couldn`t run a peanut stand..! 

As written here for the last 3 years, the BC Liberals bullshitted the electorate...There will be no debt retirement, no prosperity fund, no sales tax elimination, no 100,000 jobs, all bullshit, all con, aided and abetted by the VANCOUVER SUN, GLOBAL tv, CTV AND CKNW, we will be lucky iF this LNG industry doesn`t bankrupt public accounts and poison our air....Grant G..)

Thanks Norm MacDonald..

The Straight Goods
 Cheers Eyes Wide Open 

National Energy Board, A Farce And Sham(Dogwood Iniative)

Energy executive blasts Kinder Morgan review as “fraudulent,” quits

 http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/fraudulent-process



Marc Eliesen has withdrawn as an intervenor in the federal government’s review of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline and oil tanker expansion project, detailing his reasons for quitting in a scathing 1,500 word letter to the National Energy Board.
Eliesen is the former CEO of B.C. Hydro and the former Chair of Manitoba Hydro. A deputy minister in seven different federal and provincial governments, Eliesen has forty years’ executive experience in the energy sector, including as a board member at Suncor.
Here is the full text of his letter to the secretary of the NEB:

Written by Marc Eliesen

 
Dear Ms. Young:
The Intervenor, Marc Eliesen, wishes to withdraw from the National Energy Board hearing on the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP).
I applied as an intervenor with expertise to offer the Board in good faith that my time and personally incurred costs would be well spent in evaluating Trans Mountain’s proposal, questioning the Proponent, preparing evidence commensurate with my expertise, answering questions on that evidence, and providing final argument. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that the Board, through its decisions, is engaged in a public deception. Continued involvement with this process is a waste of time and effort, and represents a disservice to the public interest because it endorses a fraudulent process.
I have a professional background that includes over 40 years of experience in senior executive positions in the energy sector of Canada, and an understanding and working knowledge of the mandate and operations of the National Energy Board, including an appreciation of the principles of natural justice and the rules and practices of quasi‐judicial bodies in Canada. I have reached my conclusions based on my wealth of experience.
I rigorously reviewed Trans Mountain’s application and developed extensive questions in the first round of Information Requests. I was dismayed when the oral cross-examination phase — that has served as a critical part of all previous Section 52 oil pipeline hearings — was inexplicably removed from this hearing. It is my experience that when a Proponent does not face the spectre of oral cross-examination, their written responses to interrogatories suffer from a lack of detail and accountability. Still, I was willing to see the results of the Information Request process the Board promised would be sufficient.
The unwillingness of Trans Mountain to address most of my questions and the Board’s almost complete endorsement of Trans Mountain’s decision has exposed this process as deceptive and misleading. Proper and professional public interest due diligence has been frustrated, leading me to the conclusion that this Board has a predetermined course of action to recommend approval of the Project and a strong bias in favour of the Proponent.
In effect, this so-called public hearing process has become a farce, and this Board a truly industry captured regulator.
In addition to gutting the oral-cross examination feature of a public hearing process that supports proper questioning and an adequate level of due diligence, there are other Board decisions that have been made over the course of this hearing that reflect a pre-determined outcome.
The evidence on the record shows that decisions made by the Board at this hearing are dismissive of Intervenors. They reflect a lack of respect for hearing participants, a deep erosion of the standards and practices of natural justice that previous Boards have respected, and an undemocratic restriction of participation by citizens, communities, professionals and First Nations either by rejecting them outright or failing to provide adequate funding to facilitate meaningful participation.
The above is reflected in the following:

1. The Board elected not to request assistance from the Intervenors in the formulation of issues that would assist the Board in the conduct of the proceedings at the commencement of this hearing. This approach represents a double standard. Trans Mountain requested and received an amendment to the List of Issues in the earlier Part IV Toll Application. Also, this “no more issues” position is completely a reversal of what took place in the Northern Gateway Project hearing when the Board actively solicited assistance from Intervenors in the determination of issues to be included in the scope of the review. The Gateway Panel also included three sets of Information Requests (two on initial evidence and one on reply evidence) and an oral cross-examination of the evidence.
2. Given the highly technical nature and voluminous size of the TMEP application, requests from numerous participants, including municipal governments, environmental organizations and First Nations were made asking the Board to provide significant additional time to prepare Information Requests. The Board basically rejected these requests.
3. The Board has been alerted to numerous instances where Trans Mountain studies by its employees and commissioned consultants lack basic professional standards of disclosure, source verification, references, data, assumptions and methodology. It is shocking that in a process such as this where due diligence is required on a major capital project that the Board has not held Trans Mountain to a minimum professional standard of accountability and transparency. This is especially reflected in the Board’s own written Information Requests to the Proponent on the alleged economic benefit materials put forward. The Board’s veneer examination of the Proponent’s case is reflective of a decision not to dig too deeply for fear the economic case may crumble, or a lack of economic, financial and business acumen on behalf of the Board to know where and how to dig. The Board’s Information Requests related to Trans Mountain’s economic case are tantamount to a sweetheart written cross. And when basic business questions from Intervenors are asked to test the evidence at a higher level of scrutiny, Trans Mountain refuses to answer them.
4. The Board, in an unprecedented fashion, has rejected the previously established practice in Section 52 public hearings on oil pipelines to provide for oral cross-examination on the evidence submitted at the hearing. The Board maintains that two rounds of written information requests is sufficient to test the evidence. Even the Government of Canada’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has informed the Board that evidence given without cross-examination should be rejected. The DOJ stated “Canada’s position is that cross-examination is necessary to ensure a proper evidentiary record ...” Furthermore, “cross-examination serves a vital role in testing the value of testimonial evidence. It assists in the determination of credibility, assigning weight and overall assessment of the evidentiary record. It has been termed ‘the greatest legal invention ever invented for the discovery of truth’ ... without cross-examination the Board will be reviewing only untested evidence.”
5. With the absence of oral cross-examination of Trans Mountain executives and their experts, the only process now available to understand and test the application is through written Information Requests. The National Energy Board Rules of Practice and Procedure provides the NEB with the power to direct a party “to provide full and adequate” responses to Information Requests, without which the hearing process cannot be meaningful and cannot meet the requirements of procedural fairness and natural justice.For most Intervenors submitting Information Request No. 1, Trans Mountain has failed to respond and address the actual core elements of the question. They have either provided non-responses, general statements, or referred back to the inadequate information in the original application that gave rise to the question in the first place. In many instances Trans Mountain has assumed the regulator’s role declaring that the question asked is outside the List of Issues established by the NEB.Given the Board’s lack of objectivity it is not surprising that out of the approximately 2000 questions not answered by Trans Mountain that Intervenors called on the Board to compel answers, only 5 per cent were allowed by the Board and 95 per cent were rejected.The Board had stated that the elimination of cross-examination of the Proponent’s evidence can be evaluated through the two scheduled Information Requests. But we have a Kafkaesque outcome. Trans Mountain refuses to answer questions and the Board does not compel them to do so.
6. The Province of British Columbia stated that “Trans Mountain’s failure to file the evidence requested by the Province in Information Request No. 1 denies the Board, the Province and other Intervenors access to the information required to fully understand the risk posed by the Project, how Trans Mountain proposes to mitigate such risk and Trans Mountain’s ability to effectively respond to a spill related to the Project.”The Province of British Columbia has the responsibility for undertaking due diligence on behalf of the public trust of British Columbians. The 80 questions Trans Mountain refused to answer — which the Province believed important enough to ask the Board for assistance and compel Trans Mountain to answer — were denied by the Board.The Board has sided with Trans Mountain dismissing the Province of BC’s need for answers in pursuit of its duty to British Columbians. The NEB’s bias in support of the Proponent is reflecting poorly on the Province of BC in that it is unable to obtain necessary answers to conduct its due diligence. Accordingly, it raises the question as how it is possible for the Province of BC to continue to participate in this hearing process. The Province should cancel the Equivalency Agreement with the NEB on this project and undertake its own environmental assessment as the only meaningful way in which it will be able to effectively obtain the answers it seeks.

The National Energy Board is not fulfilling its obligation to review the Trans Mountain Expansion Project objectively. Accordingly it is not only British Columbians, but all Canadians that cannot look to the Board’s conclusions as relevant as to whether or not this project deserves a social license. Continued involvement in the process endorses this sham and is not in the public interest.
Yours truly,

Marc Eliesen

______________________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

The Leaking And The Lemon, A Fraccing And LNG Story(Non technical version)

Written by Grant G


Madness becomes intertwined in the fabric of everyday life, spin, promise and the vague are weapons of control, so subtle is the illusion, so numbing is the machine, insanity sold as easily as elixir drawn from the mythical fountain of youth.....

That above paragraph doesn`t sound like the start of another LNG article, but it is...The more one delves into the fracked world of liquefied natural gas the more one comes to the conclusion that the world truly is mad, or gone mad, extracting gas and extracting gas, drill a vertical hole in the ground, find a deposit of gas and presto, gas shoots out of the pipe for years and years, that is indeed a gas deposit, lay a pipe and deliver gas in gas form to business, industry and homes, this is called traditional drilling, old school, deposits were numerous and large, these wells and fields can produce gas for decades, to pipe this gas a few hundred miles, or even a 1000 miles and use domestically is a good use of this energy, and yes those traditional drilled wells do leak fugitive gasses like methane, all wells do..

 http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/09/Leaky-Fracked-Wells/

EROI....Remember that, {Energy Return On Investment)..Sheesh, and I called this the non-technical version, where was I...

EROI..Fraccing and LNG export, once you start to consider all the energy required to make that industry function one starts to wonder..to what end, are we actually ahead on the energy, meaning did we expend as much energy to produce LNG for export as it will deliver on the other end of the curve, that being the consumption end in other countries...

Fraccing, drill a vertical hole...slowly turn the drill sideways, reach your target depth, continue to drill horizontally(sideways) for some distance, remove the drill, then pipe, drive, divert from rivers, lakes, streams millions of gallons of water, add special secret sauce to the water and pump it at high pressure kilometers deep in the ground, then drop in a water concussion bomb and set off a underground explosion, thus stunning, sending a high-pressure shockwave through the underground shale formations to extract gas..well golleeeeee Andy, ain`t that special.

It is proven that all gas wells will leak methane and other fugitive gasses into our atmosphere, also what has risen to the surface in recent times is the undeniable fact that fracced wells and fields leak methane gasses but also deplete of their gas holdings quickly, meaning to produce continuous large amounts of feedstock gas for LNG exporters there must and will be a continual flurry of hole drilling, water pumping of millions of gallons and underground explosions..I wonder why mother nature gave us underground shale rock formations, perhaps to keep us lowly humans amused by allowing us to blow up said formations, we do like blowing up things, I remember a show once, forget the name but the two characters used to say.."Theys blow up good, real good"..the show was comedy, or was it a documentary, either way..

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(updated here, 11:55 pm)...I found that blows up real good skit, it was a SCTV ongoing segment featuring the departed and missed John Candy, here`s the video. courtesy Youtube.

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So now we`ll be pumping millions of gallons, no, with LNG we will be pumping billions of gallons of water underground, blowing up shale, leaking methane gasses in our air, piping the gas hundreds of miles to our pristine northern coast, where LNG companies will burn vast volumes of natural gas to freeze the gas into a liquid form, thus blasting our skies with millions of tons of greenhouse gas everyday, year after year, 24/7..365 days a year..we still aren`t there yet, at least not to the end where the consumer buys the gas, now this frozen gas is placed on specialized ocean going tankers, they look like this..

These ocean going vessels give off emissions, lots of emissions, newer LNG carriers actually burn natural gas to operate, oh yea, I almost forgot, if one of these ships exploded, terrorism, malfunction, human error, a collision with an oil laden tar sand goop carrier, the explosive power contained within that one LNG tanker is the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb..(That was highlighted here, in this article)..

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/06/kitimat-and-prince-rupert-in-line-of.html

Yikes to all those port town families, pleasant dreams.

How far does that tanker have to travel across the Pacific ocean to Asia...3000 miles, no, 6000 miles because it returns empty, we still haven`t finished the energy curve, this tanker once in Asia has to visit another LNG plant, a regasification plant where this gas is off-loaded, put in containers where it is warmed up back into gas...warm gas is now piped in and around Asia...Wow, all that energy required to produce energy, was as much energy burned to produce LNG as was delivered, I don`t know, I do know B.C. along with Australia and a few other countries will be world leaders in broken shale rock tourism, and we will have our deep ground not only not thirsty, but saturated with secret proprietary chemicals, nasty little chemicals, a witch`s brew of chemicals pumped in the ground with the water to help ease the exploded shale rock gas out, trying not to be technical here folks, maybe these waters deep underground will migrate and evolve into that treasured and forever sought after fountain of youth water, or perhaps cancers, tumours and multi-headed livestock will be the result, who knows for sure, we don`t even know what chemicals are being placed in the ground, keep the faith people, we can trust energy companies, well..

How much energy was required to produce that Asian product, not sure, can`t calculate, the drilling, the water, the chemicals, broken shale, pipelines, I can simply calculate the energy use at the proposed LNG plants..The Site C dam proposal, Site C if built could power one large LNG plant and about 1/3rd of another LNG plant, Christy Clark has pontificated in her own folksy sorta, "ya know" kinda way that B.C. is going to have 10 LNG plants, or was that 12, who knows at this time, left side, right side of mouth week..

So I was curious as to how many homes, if built could the Site C dam power....and, straight from the BC Hydro web page

__________

 "Site C would be a source of clean and renewable electricity for over 100 years. Site C would provide 1,100 megawatts of capacity, and produce about 5,100 gigawatt hours of electricity each year – enough energy to power the equivalent of about 450,000 homes per year in B.C."

https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/site_c/site_c_an_option/what_is_site_c.html

_____

Clean renewable energy, Christy Clark`s vision, besides blowing up all our shale("Theys blow up good, real good"), her vision would require 10 Site C dams to power her LNG industrial sized wet dream, ...10 Site C dams, enough electricity to power 4, 500,000 homes, ..That would be 4 1/2 million homes, that is more homes than we have people in B.C....B.C. has a mere 4 million people, roughly 1.8 million homes, enough electricity to power up 3 British Columbias will be expended everyday to produce LNG for export..

Now for my non-technical math and energy consumption scale...3 British Columbia`s worth of electrical use, pipelines, holes drilled fast n furious, billions of gallons of water, secret chemicals within(fountain of youth project), poor old busted up and blown up real goood shale rock formations, a floating bomb emission spewing tanker, a trip back n forth over the Pacific Ocean, a stopover at a regasification plant in Asia and another visit to the pipe for our B.C. natural gas..helloooo..hellooo...oops, I was imagining B.C. natural gas shouting that into an empty Asian pipeline, never mind. ....and don`t forget about those criminal(fugitive) methane gasses that aren`t content to stay in their now broken down shale rock abode, skyward they must travel, I hear methane is 10 times, or 100 times more damaging than regular greenhouse gasses, no need to quibble.

Did I mention this plan as advertised will expend/require 1/4 to 1/3 of a trillion dollars, ..the build-out cost, $250 to $300 billion in facilities and pipelines for the advertised dozen LNG plants, add in carrying costs, interest and we are looking at near $1/2 a trillion dollars.......$400,000,000.000.00 in profit needed just to break even, to recoup the investment, and that is before B.C. has received a dime,.... B.C. Government is claiming it will receive near $250 billlion...$650,000,000,000.00.....And the energy companies still haven`t made a profit $1,000,000,000,000.00????..How much gas is that... a lot of gas, a lot of holes, a lot of water, a lot of explosions...

Madness and the illusion converge, skilled labour shortage, the requirement of millions of workers all drilling and blowing up shale rock, intertwined as a control measure, a human control measure, present future prosperity and pacify the non-deliverance of anything tangible, move on to the next scheme, the next fountain of youth, survive your political term, fill your boots and pass the baton to the next snake elixir salesperson,

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it just might be a lemon!

http://thetyee.ca/Books/2013/11/09/Bill-Powers-Natural-Gas-Book/



The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

B.C. Liberals Corrupt LNG PLOT, .........Exposed

Written by Grant G


A couple of months on Vancouver island, no internet, no cable, merely AM radio, .....What the hell is going on around here, !!!!!!!

Houston, we have a problem...,....Actually British Columbia has a problem, we have no media, fully complicit in accepting, regurgitating and passing on to a sheepish public pure bafflegab, that is no understatement, ....Where to start..

GHG emissions, .....1 LNG plant emitting green house gasses at the lowest level, at the level of the most efficient LNG plant in the world 1 LNG plant will emit the GHGs equivalent to the emissions of 3 million automobiles....5 medium LNG plants would emit greenhousegasses equivalent to 15 million automobiles, ......at that level these plants will pay no carbon tax, only if they pollute more than that of the level of the most efficient LNG plant(3 million tonnes per year) will they have to purchase carbon offsets and or pay into a industry innovation fund?????

Our BC enshrined in law GHG reduction targets require British Columbia to reduce greenhousegas emissions by 33% over 2007 levels by 2020....

5 LNG plants will triple British Columbia`s current GHG levels, .......Are you listening BC media, this corrupt BC Liberal government will continue to gouge BCers for carbon tax money(returned to the wealthy and corporations as tax cuts) while our provincial GHG levels triple....

Christy Clark, ......You blathering idiot, expecting the public to believe you, referencing reducing China`s emissions by claiming we`re reducing their coal use when at the same time we are selling them coal..

I have a question for you Christy Clark....Are you high on magic mushrooms? LSD?...

I have a question for the media.....What is your price, how much money does it require for you all to turn in to idiot sounding boards, echo chamber for stupid dumbass buffoons!...My gawd, why aren`t you laughing at the BC Liberals?..

Here this you effing media fools....1 LNG plant will add the emissions of 3 million automobiles, 3 million automobile emissions pouring in to Kitimat, in to Prince Rupert......oh indeed, don`t get me started with carbon offsets, our Great Bear rainforest .........If one could claim our Great Bear rainforest as a carbon offset(if)...The Great Bear Rainforest in it`s entirety per year is only 1.2 million tonnes of carbon capture...and no, the Great Bear Rainforest CAN`T be claimed as a carbon offset!...

Why aren`t you laughing at the BC Liberals, ?....Nobody is buying the bullshit, no one, not even the BC Liberal supporters..!

Honesty, a value lost, nowhere to be seen in British Columbia, if our BC Liberal government was honest they would just tell the truth, LNG plants will blow our B.C. emissions off the chart...cancel the carbon tax, cancel the carbon tax tax cuts, game over, no other argument applies, no bafflegab, no bullshit, no spin, just spit out the truth....

Will the public be forced to pay a carbon tax as BC`s emission double, triple....square pegs in a round hole and I can`t believe my ears, the media, Global, CTV, even the CBC sit there regurgitating this crappolla , you couldn`t sell this lie to a kindergarten child, no one is that stupid....yes BC mainstream media, you aren`t that stupid either, just bought and sold like cheap junk bonds, ...

Mike De Jong is lying, Rich Coleman is lying, Christy Clark is lying, ......

Mike De Jong claims that a 3.5 percent tax on profits on a medium LNG plant will bring British Columbia $800 million per year(after build costs are recouped) ...Wrong...The current world LNG export market is 170 billion dollars per year(that was when LNG was trading for $18 dollars per BTU in Japan, current price is 12$ per BTU), that is from all the world`s LNG plants......

Do the math people.... Mike De Jong is claiming British Columbia will collect $800 million per year at the 3.5% taxation level......???.....That means that a medium sized LNG plant must be making $23 billion dollars on LNG per year, that would be $23 billion dollars in pure profit....Let me remind you that the current LNG market for all the world is less than $170 billion dollars...Are you telling us that 1 medium BC LNG plant will take 17% of the world market?....5 medium British Columbia LNG plants are going to acquire 80% of the world LNG export market?????

The numbers don`t add up, not even close, 1 medium LNG plant over 30 years is going to achieve $700 billion dollars in profit ?......5 medium sized LNG plants making over $100 billion dollars in pure profit, pure year, Total sales would have to be in the $Trillions ? per year

HA HA, ......Hello Keith Baldrey, hello Vaughn Palmer, are you awake, alive, or are you both in a coma?

PETRONAS.....hmmm....The Malaysian government, the project PETRONAS is proposing is made up of equity partners...They are as follows.....The government of Brunei....Japex(Japanese government).....The Government of India...Sinopec(Chinese Government).....

These equity partners are taking(committed to taking) 70% of the gas, leaving only 30% of the gas being liquefied for sale, ..that 30% is in PETRONAS`s hands for potential sale to cash buyers...

Riddle me this media.....Why would Brunei, India, Japan, China, Malaysia pay $billions of dollars for an LNG plant only to pay market rate for the gas?, they can buy market rate gas from Australia, from Qatar, from Russia.....Equity partners do not invest $billions to pay ther same price as joe public...

And..

There is no guarantee that the time PETRONAS finishes building their plant that the equity partners will take all the gas...However, as it stands now only 30% of the natural gas PETRONAS liquefies is for sale and subject to taxation..hello Vaughn Palmer, ask some questions and perhaps even a follow-up question...Sheesh..

How many more leads do you media need....These LNG plants proposed are to be built on the coast, guess where the mainframes are to be built, fabricated, modularized, ....That`s right friends, 90% of the mainframe for the LNG plants are to be built in South Korea in modular form and barged to British Columbia... Why am I mentioning this?...Because we in Canada and British Columbia are going to be allowing $billions of dollars of LNG infrastructure built in South Korea to be written off against BC and Canada taxes????

You don`t have to believe me, believe British Gas....

("BG intends to build a facility on Ridley Island capable of producing 21 million tonnes of LNG a year. Called Prince Rupert LNG, it would be built overseas in modules and shipped to Prince Rupert for assembly.
 Even so, the plant would create 3,500 jobs during construction,

 250 permanent direct jobs and another 250 spinoff jobs.

 BG says it is planning to build it in two phases, beginning in 2016.
The first phase — two seven-million-tonne-a-year processing units, or trains — is to be completed by 2021" )

_______________

Do you need more, PETRONAS has a problem, a big problem, they want to dredge the Skeena river estuary....meaning the end of BC`s second most productive salmon river, ....PETRONAS wants a free pass from the federal environmental assessment, they have already received a free pass on our provincial environmental assessment....Remember?

Remember when Christy Clark announced that LNG plants wouldn`t require an environmental assessment, that is still in play...Christy Clark had to backtrack(verbally) as First Nations flipped out after hearing that...

______________________

A group of B.C. officials has been kicked out of a First Nations forum on liquefied natural gas over the government’s decision to exempt most of the gas produced in the province from mandatory environmental assessment.

Chief Sharleen Gale of the Fort Nelson First Nation, organizer of the summit in the northeast corner of the province, asked the bureaucrats to leave and escorted them out.

“There was no consultation as far as changing that policy,” said Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, which represents eight First Nations communities in northern B.C. “We were blindsided.”

Cheryl Casimer, an executive of the First Nations Summit, called the revisions “another unacceptable example of government once again attempting to water down and minimize its consultation and accommodation obligations with our communities.”

Earlier this week, the Liberal government passed an order in council that means, as of April 28, natural gas plants that produce so-called “sweet gas” will no longer face an automatic environmental assessment. According to figures from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, that would account for about 99 per cent of the natural gas produced in the province.

Environment Minister Mary Polak said processing plants will still be subject to an approval process overseen by the commission. The revisions eliminate duplication, she said.

http://westcoastnativenews.com/b-c-government-officials-have-been-kicked-out-of-a-first-nations-forum-on-lng/

(Do you see the highlighted section above, a corrupted oil n gas commission has been given the power to yea and nay environmental approvals!!)
____________________

PETRONAS wants to dredge the Skeena river, PETRONAS has been offered a free pass from the province on the environmental assessment, ...Just like the province green-lighted Tesako`s prosperity mine project, a project so environmentally destructive even the Federal Government rejected it, rejected it twice...

Where the hell is the media, ask some effing questions,.....These BC Liberals don`t need to be mollycoddled they need to be questioned, as in an inquisition!....

Bottom line on this LNG scam.... Greenhouse gas emissions from these LNG plants will double to triple BC`s entire provincial emission total, no mandated by law targets will ever be met, no carbon offsets large enough exist anywhere in the world....And as for the so-called industry innovation fund, call it what it is, industry filling industry`s own piggybank....News flash, there is no scientific way to reduce natural gas emissions, can`t be scrubbed, or buried, science, pure science.....

The money the BC Liberals are claiming we will receive from a 3.5% tax will never accrue, never, I dare any accountant to prove me wrong...And....It will take more than a decade for these companies to recoup their build costs, their double and triple over budget build costs, ..These would be the south Korean built modules, foreign built modules written off against Canadian taxes...

Christy Clark...Mike De Jong..Rich Coleman..Shirley Bond will be long gone before British Columbia realizes they have been duped...

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The Petronas EIS dated Feb. 2014 lists CO2 emissions at 5.28 million tonnes (MT) for an LNG annual output of 19.2 MT, which is a ratio of 0.275. Even if ratio is 0.22, as they are now claiming, that equals 4.22 MT CO2 per year.

Let's put this in perspective. If Burrard Thermal, which Christy liked to tout as a "major polluter", ran as a standby plant producing 900 MW 15% of the year, annual CO2 would be 0.6 MT.

If a $1.5 billion gas-fired power plant was built instead of $8 billion Site C, annual CO2 emissions to produce 5,100 GWh/yr would be 1.9 MT. Yet the gov't has outlawed such a plant under the Clean Energy Act due to its GHG emissions! Yet this same gov't had no issue modifying the Clean Energy Act to allow LNG terminals to burn all the gas they want. The hypocrisy is astounding

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Pony up the proof media...Prove me wrong....

 

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Howe Sound, Bowen Island, West Vancouver, Kitimat and Prince Rupert, In The Line of Fire, KABOOM

Before you read this article, and watch the videos, ....Jordon Sturdy, a BC Liberal, along with Rich Coleman, Susan Anton attended a swanky affair in a West Vancouver private golf course, media was forbidden to attend, Bob Mackin got chased out, ..The event was billed as an election 2017 fundraiser for BC Liberal Jordan Sturdy...However, the private, no media allowed event was funded by, paid by,...Woodfibre LNG...A company that just submitted their application for a environmental certificate from the BC Liberal Government, ...On the eve of this event Woodfibre filed for that certificate, then Woodfibre paid for, funded and donated large sums of cash to the BC Liberals....This is/was a total conflict of interest..Woodfibre paid off the BC Liberals, to attain greenlighted environmental certificates Woodfibre paid the piper, ....Also know as the grafty BC Liberals....Details of this corruption is here....in the below link..

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2015/02/bc-liberals-take-cash-at-swanky.html

Oh, before you read the below, you should be aware that the own of Woodfibre LNG is a convicted tax evader....A environmental criminal, his own family has tried to warn the world of her father`s sins, and record..

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/11/christy-clarks-newest-lng-investor.html

 http://commonsensecanadian.ca/woodfibre-lng-proponent-history-fraud-tax-evasion/






Pemex gas plant explosion in Mexico..(December/2012)

Huge natural gas explosion in Sissonville West Virginia....

 Kansas City 2012

Alabama 2013

Western Massachussetts 2012

Mexico 2012

LNG Tanker in China, 2012

Edison NJ..1994

2012..Natural gas pipeline explosion

 

The LNG Tanker, massive ship, the length of two football fields..

One LNG plant, for example the Petronas proposed project, 190 LNG transport ships per year, 190 ships coming, 190 ships going, in reality it`s more like 380 traverses per year, those ships that arrive must also leave..

That is one LNG plant, let`s assume for the time being that 8 LNG plants get built in BC...4 in Prince Rupert and 4 in Kitimat..each requiring 190 yearly LNG transport ships..760 LNG transport ships coming to Kitimat, 760 LNG transport ships leaving Kitimat each year, the same for Prince Rupert...(760 X 2 in Prince George too = 1520 traverses)

Now let`s add in 200 Alberta tar oil(diluted bitumen) transport tankers coming each year to Kitimat, 200 tar oil tankers leaving Kitimat each year.

Add it all up, the third most dangerous waterway in the world(Douglas Channel and the Hecate Strait)...A place where 40 and 50 foot waves are common, a place where hurricane force winds occur many times per year, every year, a place where these storms rage for days on end, raging storms where no shipping could happen, thus piling up ships in waiting, ..

1520 LNG transport ships coming and going..760 in..760 out...400 Diluted bitumen ships coming and going..200 per year in...200 out..And when storms rage for days these ships will pile up, get backlogged, these ships cannot call on other ports, an accident waiting to happen.

And we have the LNG plants themselves, giant potential bombs, visible, not discreet, giant white orbs filled with millions of litres of frozen natural gas..

Accidents do happen, a collision at sea between a behemoth LNG carrier and an oil tanker would most certainly be disastrous, and explosive..

LNG plant explosions, being so visible they are indeed a target for terrorists, and if anyone thinks terrorism doesn`t exist in British Columbia has forgotten our B.C. history, the Air India bombing that killed hundreds, that bomb was placed on the jet at Vancouver International Airport...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182

The millennium bomber who was caught at a border crossing in British Columbia, caught with a car loaded with explosives, the terrorist had intentions of bombing LAX airport in Los Angelos..

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ressam

Homegrown terrorists, or should I say, British Columbia based terrorists..

Kitimat, Prince Rupert, not exactly security hubs, rural coastal towns with easy port access, ports where one can sail in, or motor in and out of with nary a question asked..

Pooled gas explosions ....Slow leak explosions....Sudden catastrophic explosions,..LNG is concentrated frozen natural gas, holding tanks contain millions of litres of gas, terrorism is a real threat, collision at sea and within the ports are real threats, human error is a threat, mechanical breakdown and many others factors come into play..

Natural gas leaks can send gas downwind where gases can accumulate to the point where one, or many can become asphyxiated, or accumulations of gas can migrate until an ignition source sets off the gas, a muffler, a switch, an engine, even a thermostat, ....

Natural gas fires burn hotter than oil fires,  these fires cannot be extinguished with water or foam, these type of fires only stop burning when all fuels are expended, with many LNG plants proposed for each of those ports, all being fed by pipelines coming from the east, or northeast, pipeline coming from inland head towards the coast, any LNG plant explosion would rip through the port of Kitimat, rip back towards the pipeline burning everything in its way, ...

Natural gas leakages would blow inwards, towards inland, meaning towards the populous, the prevailing winds blow from offshore towards the mainland, ...A natural gas leak of scale, the gas would migrate back towards the town of Kitimat until it finds an ignition source, then kaboom, depending on the gas concentration a fire or explosion would track back to the LNG plant where a catastrophic explosion would occur, any LNG plant explosion could be compared too or be on the scale of the great Halifax harbour explosion....That explosion of munitions was caused when two marine vessels collided. a fire started which ignited the munitions..An epic disaster, historic levels of human suffering, films have been done on that human error disaster, tales of terror passed down from generation to generations, a true story of a populous port  town nearly wiped off the map, entire families blasted to bits...2000 dead, 9000 injured..

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"The Halifax Explosion occurred near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on the morning of Thursday, December 6, 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully laden with wartime explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo^[2] in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. Approximately twenty minutes later, a fire on board the French ship ignited her volatile cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the Richmond District of Halifax.

 Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured.^[3] The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons^[4] with an equivalent force of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT.^[5] In a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in May 1918, Dalhousie University's Professor Howard L. Bronson estimated the blast at some 2.4 million kilograms of high explosive.^"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

___

There is more explosive power in one loaded LNG carrier than what blew up in Halifax in 1917...One loaded LNG tanker is equivalent to 5 Hiroshima nuclear blasts, yes, there is that much explosive energy in those carriers....

The port of Kitimat, if it had 4 LNG plants, if there were several loaded or partially loaded LNG tankers, with all the adjacent feedstock natural gas pipelines, you are talking about the equivalent of 50 Hiroshima nuclear bombs sitting there, one collision, one catastrophic human error, one  Tsunami, an earthquake and tsunami, a runaway marine vessel, an act of terrorism..

Hello British Columbia, let me be perfectly clear, I don`t expect a bunch of LNG export plants to be built, however, no one has talked about the potential dangers, we have seen in recent days large industrial explosions that destroyed towns, there was a big explosion in Texas....Towns in California have been blown to bits by natural gas pipelines that were punctured..

There are several issues at play for people living in Kitimat, these behemoth LNG plants, and LNG cargo ships will be belching vast volumes of greenhouse gases that will blow directly into Prince Rupert and Kitimat, that is the direction prevailing winds blow..

With such a concentration of LNG plants in one area, all needing pipelines and feedstock, all needing LNG cargo ships to export the product the potential for a catastrophic explosion does exist, human error, drunken or drugged employees, mental issues, blackmail and terrorism, with winds blowing fumes inland entire towns can become asphyxiated, die in their sleep..

I hope you enjoy the above videos, there are hundreds more available if one looks..


Catastrophic accidents happen every year around the world, Murphy`s law..

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"

And reality, the more LNG plants in one area the more likelihood of a accident, also, there is no way to remove the human error factor, the tired employee factor, the defective part, the lax inspection, terrorism..

Here`s a very interesting link on LNG pool explosions and slow leak explosions..

http://www.quoddyloop.com/savepassamaquoddybay/documents/newspaper_inserts/insert-7.pdf

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Patience Friends...What LNG Windfall?....Christy Clark is now HOPEFUL?

Been busy entertaining mom on Vancouver Island.....

I`ll be back by the weekend...(October 10)


Stay tuned....

We`ll talk LNG....And BC Ferries

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Poverty Breeds Healthcare Expenses

Written by Mark Taliano



The corporatist narrative informs us that freedom is blind attachment to the dictates of opaque supranational stealth agreements that supersede and obviate national legislation, rules, and regulations.

It tells us that tribunals outside of the reach of Canada's judiciary are to be trusted, and that investor-rights, even when the investor is a foreign country, are more important than national rights.
Totalitarian corruption from above, free from the shackles of democracy, is the new theology as Canadians are taught to blindly trust the benevolent corporatocracy, secure in the knowledge that what is good for corporate globalization must also be good for us.

When we are told that de-regulation is good for us, we believe it, even as tragedies such as the Lac Megantic inferno are fresh in our minds.

Destruction of the public sphere is also thought to be good, as are corporate in-roads into previously sacrosanct domains that were once thought to be emblematic of Canada.
It comes as no surprise, then, that many Canadians support the accelerating corporatization of universal healthcare. It's the (only) answer to the demands of an aging population, we are told, and what is best for the corporation is best for us.

Opposition is somehow treasonous, a socialist plot, and anathema to freedom loving peoples.
Consequently, sacrosanct investor-rights agreements -- such as the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- are deemed necessary to lock in protections for free-ranging, transnational corporations, even as they shackle national economies and neuter democratic decision-making.

People blindly accept the co-option of human rights terminology that disguises the secret powers from above: "free trade" will liberate us; globalization is good, and Canada is open for business.
Once we remove our blinders, we see that the corrupting lies from above are disguising an anti-democratic system of governance that is impoverishing us, eroding our economy, and destroying any notions of universality or common good.

The irony is rich. The dismantling of our emblematic health care system is happening beneath our very noses. We are assured that it is in or best interests, and that corporate, multi-tiered health care, like corporate globalization, is inevitable. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Each promise about corporate healthcare is false. Comprehensive documentation shows that a "two tier" (it's actually a multitude of tiers) system is inferior to a universal publicly funded system, by any measure.

Not only is corporate health care bad for the collective health of a country's population, but it also cripples national economies. Ted Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors, recognized in 2008 that high healthcare costs reduce General Motor's competitiveness. Wagoner noted in "G.M C.E.O: Serious Health Care Reform 'Undoubtedly Would Help Level The Playing Field'" that his company spent over $103 billion over fifteen years on pensions and post-retirement health care benefits, and that, "Obviously if we had the $103 billion and could use it for other things, it would enable us to be even farther ahead on technology or newer equipment in our plants or whatever." The article further explains that Japan's universal health system ensures that Toyota "paid $1,400 less per vehicle on health care' and makes $2,400 more per car than American manufacturers."
Everything from bloated administrative costs, to the high cost of medical procedures, and the exorbitant cost of medications, to name just a few, make the US corporate healthcare model less efficient and more expensive than universal models, and the extra costs do not lead to better outcomes.

National health care programs, on the other hand, save money and improve outcomes. Bulk buying of medications improve patient accessibility to care, reduce costs to patients, and improve local and national economies.

Additionally, as the public system is further eroded by parallel corporate systems, other variables, such as wait times, also increase for most people.
Given the comprehensive evidence that illustrates the weakness of corporatized health care systems, this option should not even be on the table.

What, then, are productive solutions to Canada's current heath care woes?
Dr. Danielle Martin, family physician, V.P of Medical Affairs and Health Systems Solutions at Women's College Hospital, and Assistant Professor in Medicine and Health Policy at the University of Toronto, offers steps that could be implemented immediately to improve the health of all Canadians AND strengthen our economy.

Step one is "20 Drugs To Save A Nation." Bulk buying of medications through a public drug plan would reduce costs substantially. We could start now by bulk-buying 20 selected drugs, and eventually create a national pharmacare program which would save us as much as $10.7 billion per year.
Step two, "Less Is More" involves changing the culture of medical tests. We could improve health outcomes and save money by avoiding unnecessary testing and procedures.

The internet site www.choosingwiselycanada.org identifies the problems and dangers associated with unnecessary testing, and it explains "When you need them -- and when you don't."
Step three, "Sick With Poverty," is likely the most controversial, but it too would offer tremendous savings, as well as better health (and economic) outcomes.

Canada would save $7.6 billion per year on reduced health care costs alone if the crisis of poverty was responsibly addressed by discarding the current welfare system, and replacing it with a Guaranteed Annual Income system.

Evidence shouts that we could improve our collective health, and our economy, by improving, rather than rejecting universal healthcare -- and by shredding some of these corporate rights deals while we're at it.

All we need now is the collective will to make the right choices.

Written by Mark Taliano


________________________________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Christy Clark Wants Your Teenage Children Walking The Streets

Picture is of Christy Clark pandering and politicking at Seaspan Shipyards in 2011...remember Stephen Harper`s grand ship building contract, all that money...it was 2011...it is now 2014..still no ships under construction, same con job at the Irving shipyards in Halifax.....I`ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today, or a vote...sigh!





Written by Grant G



I`m not sure what has disgraced our province more, Christy Clark as the leader and face of British Columbia or a corporate media that cheerleads failure.....?

Would you eat at a restaurant(again) where you previously berated the waiter, the waitress, returned your food and refused to pay, cussed out the management and spit on the floor..

Would you trust having your vehicle serviced at a garage where you previously bounced checks, called into doubt the mechanic`s credentials, made rude and derogatory comments towards the garage....?

Probably not...there are plenty of other restaurants and service garages seemingly on every corner, water under the bridge, move on and spend your dollars elsewhere, however, public education isn`t everywhere, one place, one group, one set of teachers tasked to care for and teach your most valued asset, ......The Child.

Sign a labour contract, dot the I(s) and cross the T(s) and all is back to normal.....And all is back to normal...? really, just like that, happy smiling teachers, really, ...Teachers with no memories, no feelings, no remorse, no regrets just happy smiling teachers ready to teach little Billy and Sally, what grudges, what get-even thoughts, it doesn`t matter if teachers are now looking at PAY-UP notices coming through their mail slot, matters not that 1000s of teachers cancelled well-needed summer vacations, ......

Money, it`s one thing not to get more money it`s quite another to have dependable money stolen away, Christy Clark by taking monies away from teachers in her ongoing vendetta against teachers and her late dad has done more harm than can be imagined..

It will take years and years for the stench to fade, how motivated would you be to teach those BC Liberal parent`s kids, teachers can do their job, or they can do their job, must teachers be upbeat, motivated, ready and willing to work their butts off preparing your child for the future, or they can just do the minimum, score exams and hand out assignments...

Christy Clark is toxic sludge and no teacher settlement negotiated or otherwise can put broken and busted up Humpty Dumpty back together again....

Public education will never be the same again in British Columbia and you can thank Christy Clark for that....

$40 dollar per day childcare payments, for the littler ones, the bigger students get nothing....

You know what they say about idle hands....1000`s of teenage boys n girls fending for themselves, nothing to do, no money just time, time to smoke dope, time to drink, time to steal, commit crimes, time to have sex with each other while parent(s) are working, or perhaps time to have sex with adult men, that as a means to get cash, cash for dope, booze..

Will you Christy Clark take personal responsibility for anyone`s child who becomes incarcerated, drug addicted, working the streets, in jail or worse, will you Christy Clark take responsibility for those teenage children who die on weekday afternoons?

Parents know all too well that children, especially teenagers need organized structure to keep them out of trouble, teenagers need walking around money...

How come you Christy Clark want older teenage children wandering the streets without a penny(nickel) in their pocket..?

Besides scarring public education Christy Clark .......There will be dead children as a result of your actions...furthermore, every teenage child should receive the same $40 dollars per day...call it walking around money.

__________

There is no money, no money for kids, teachers, no money for seniors, no money for government oversight into mining, resource extraction, no money for anything, our province British Columbia has been brought to its knees because Christy Clark`s Liberal gang of incompetents have bankrupted our province, our provincial debt not counting BC Hydro debt, BC Ferry debt, IPP contractual debt and PPP debt stands at $75 billion dollars up from $28 billion in 2001...

There are no unicorns, no fairy godmother, no magic gold pixie dust just staggering debt, courtesy of fiscal criminality orchestrated by the BC Liberals....and there is no LNG riches coming our way....

I mentioned atop this post, who has disgraced us more, Christy Clark or our media and the answer is...

Corporate media....

"We are in a horserace with other countries, .....A trillion dollar once in a lifetime opportunity.....100,000 s of LNG jobs...revenue streams for northern communities, for First Nations.....Elimination of sales tax, ....our BC debt eliminated and a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund..."

Christy Clark promised British Columbia everything mentioned above for the last 3 years and during the 2013 election writ.....and guess what we as a province will be receiving?......NOTHING!

16 months since the election and LNG died.......Every project is dead except for the PETRONAS bid, that project involves giving away our finite resources to 5 national foreign governments...British Columbians are unaware that the PETRONAS project is not private industry, ...5 foreign governments involved...Malaysia...Japan...Brunei....China and India....not Shell..not Chevron, not Exxon Mobile, not Progress energy or Apache Energy...5 foreign Governments with equity shares...Hey Christy Clark...do you not realize that equity partners pay wholesale not retail.....


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/11/christy-clarks-preposterous-lng-fantasy.html

Christy Clark`s and Rich Coleman`s LNG tax framework has now been pushed to the end of the year 2014(or later), the LNG export tax framework was initially promised for September 2013..been delayed, stalled and now...

Now it has been all but scuttled, been notified that the new number, (the old number bandied about last year was a 7% LNG export tax) is less than 1% ..higher than 0% but less than 1%...

So why isn`t the media reporting this, this LNG taxation won`t be a secret very long, there is no reason to withhold this information from the public, these aren`t trade secrets or Colonel Sanders recipes, it won`t affect other countries vying for LNG investment, you can`t beat 0%....

Even at 0% taxation the margins are thin, too thin thus these companies are going elsewhere, they need a country with no environmental rules or enforcement, they need a country where the local populous can be used and abused, modern day servitude disguised as progress...

Even with that the PETRONAS bid is not a for sure, still in doubt.....

Here is how the announcement of the LNG taxation framework will go down, what I`ve been told....

The LNG taxation framework will not be announced UNTIL there is a final investment decision, meaning if PETRONAS delays their FID announcement the LNG taxation framework will be delayed right along with it.....

Assuming PETRONAS does commit to a LNG plant(If Canadian bankers lend them the money on very long-term conditions).....

What is currently planned is a big press conference featuring the head of PETRONAS and Christy Clark, the talk will be of $billions and billions in investment, they will talk hyper exaggerated job numbers and how great this will be for British Columbia.....And we still won`t know the LNG taxation framework....Christy Clark will saunter of the stage and leave the questions for Rich Coleman...

Only after all the balloons, all the media perks have been handed out, only after the public fanfare will Rich Coleman deliver the bad news, ...How times had changed, how the parameters were moved, new playing field in a tough global economy....Only after all that is said will Rich Coleman tell BCers that their proposed export tax is gone!....  7% to 0%..

And if it isn`t 0% PETRONAS too will not build....Cue the media, they have no shame and Keith Baldrey will help sell this pig n a poke, in fact Keith Baldrey already knows about the double shuffle two step bullshit being planned for British Columbia....Vancouver Sun will promote the new deal as will the Globe n Mail...And if you have any doubt...

Check out the pre disappointment shilling being done....

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/08/22/New-BC-Think-Tank/


http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Cayo+Vancouver+biggest+winner+when+forests+farms+mines+well/9720865/story.html


The "new" government funded think tank claims that city folk are the big winners in resource extraction, all those new lawyers and finance people required, all the goods and services, all multiplying and doubling, tripling, spinning, churning, there is even a video where think tank spokeboob explains in a Martian/Greek/Geek dialect how raping our province is good for Vancouver.....It will even pay for teachers wage demands....oh the humanity...

Desperate days for Christy Clark....

And now for the Glob n Pale......

They published today pure tripe, unseasoned tripe, no orange sauce, no wild rice just plain tripe that stunk up my computer screen.....

What next Globe n Mail?......Are you going to start selling special edition Christy Clark underwear or are you going to declare your allegiance to idiot writing shills?

Absolute pathetic writing and shilling finding press pages, I`ll let one commenter from the Glob N Pale sum up the article...

With eyes on LNG boom, demand for construction workers in B.C. to rise

KFB in B.C. wrote, and I quote.....


"What drivel! The globe should be ashamed for letting this bovine generated waste to be published. There is not one lng project on the go and is in all likely hood never will be. This is just cheap Schilling for a totally corrupt government. Shame."

What drivel! The globe should be ashamed for letting this bovine generated waste to be published. There is not one lng project on the go and is in all likely hood never will be. This is just cheap Schilling for a totally corrupt government. Shame.

With eyes on LNG boom, demand for construction workers in B.C. to rise

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/with-eyes-on-lng-boom-demand-for-construction-workers-to-rise/article20187870/


I couldn`t have said it better KFB.....


Our media, Canada`s media has turned into a moral disgrace, worse than the politicians, worse than Christy Clark, controlled by corporate means...

You Christy Clark deserve to be recalled, or jailed, a useless uneducated bitch.......See you in hell Christy Clark..

http://www.change.org/p/bc-citizens-recall-premier-christy-clark


Written by Grant G


P.S.....Well folks I`ve done it....cut the cable, no more cable TV, no more mainstream media...I`m strictly on line, internet only....no Global, no CTV, no CKNW...I feel like I have been cleansed....Join me...it`s the only way the media will get the message....CUT the CABLEVISION

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Lie Big or Go Home

  

     Written By Mark Taliano    People are disinclined to believe monstrous crimes, especially since monstrous crimes are usually camouflaged by Big Lies. Hitler knew about the value of the Big Lie, and he wrote about it in Mein HYPERLINK "http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kampf.html"Kampf.

Stalin too was aware of the power of monstrous crimes. He is said to have observed that "when one man dies it is tragedy, when thousands die HYPERLINK "http://books.google.de/books?id=8fp1A2s6aQwC&pg=PA510&dq"it'sHYPERLINK "http://books.google.de/books?id=8fp1A2s6aQwC&pg=PA510&dq" statistics."

People are even less inclined to believe that their own country perpetuates these crimes. On a subterranean level, people associate the search for truth as being somehow unpatriotic, even as the search for truth means a search for freedom from the totalitarian shackles of undemocratic governance that advances secret agendas through its manipulation of the masses. Silence in the face of the lies of totalitarianism is a form of complicity.

Humanity’s inclination to accept monstrous crimes and the lies that camouflage them means that the crimes are perpetuated, time and again, throughout history. Those responsible for engineering the crimes are aware of this.

We now know, for example, that Bush and his aides lied 935 times in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, and that they provided false evidence as a pretext for the illegal invasion of Iraq. Despite the fact that about one million people have already died as a result of this massive criminal enterprise, the public somehow remains delusional and ready to accept the next big crime and the next batch of lies.

The open-ended War On Terror is yet another Big Lie. It is used as a cover for on-going imperialism, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in the Ukraine, Syria, and Palestine. Those who oppose Empire are said to be terrorists, and the monstrous crimes are continue unabated. The most recent culprit is Israel, -- thought to be an appendage (or driver?) of the U.S empire -- which is currently committing genocide in Palestine. Predictably, much of the world is looking away, apparently lulled by the lies and distortions of the corporate media echo chambers.

In order to break this toxic cycle of delusions and crimes, we need to dig deep, find the truth behind the crimes, and the money behind the lies.

The foundational catalyst for the fraudulent "War On Terror" is 9/11, yet, unsurprisingly, investigations into this monstrous crime have so far been inadequate. As David Ray Griffith argues in The New Pearl Harbour: Disturbing Questions About The Bush Administration And 9/11, the conclusions of the political investigations: the 9/11 Joint Congressional Inquiry (of which 28 pages remain redacted), and the 9/11 Independent Commission, need to be re-examined by a sweeping juridical investigation, free from political interference and hasty presuppositions.

It is, for example, unacceptable, that the head of the 9/11 Commission, Philip HYPERLINK "http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/20/142478/"Zelikow, was appointed by Bush administration, just as it is unacceptable that both the Joint Congressional hearings and the 9/11 Commission hearings were restricted by presuppositions that the crime was the result of breakdowns -- including incompetence, poor communication, and ignorance -- rather than official complicity.

　

　

At the very least, prima facie incidents which point to official complicity should be re-examined. Griffith identifies, in detail, 40 such "smoking guns" that have not been adequately investigated. Three of the more compelling ones are listed below:

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to intercept hijacked airlines were not followed on September 11, 2001 only.
Forensic evidence – steel from the collapsed World Trade Center – was quickly removed, and shipped overseas, before it could be examined.
Local Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were prevented from professionally performing their duties by FBI headquarters.

A better appreciation of the "money behind the lies" adds urgency to the need for a judicial investigation into the terror of 9/11 that killed 2,996 people immediately, and launched (previously-planned) invasions overseas, all under the cover of the on-going and patently fraudulent War On Terror.

The Bush Administration, the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, the military-industrial complex, and the oil industry all benefit from the 9/11 crimes:
Bush’s plans to enlarge the US Empire, and expand its globalized model of predatory economics were accelerated and advanced.
$48 billion was added to the Pentagon budget.
CIA funding was increased by 42%.
Imperial conquests, starting with Afghanistan and Iraq, are now disguised as legitimate, and even "self-defence".
Legislation to dominate and oppress civilians (i.e the Patriot Act, Homeland Security) continues to flourish.
Security, policing, and military complexes continue to benefit from more funding and power.
Oil companies continue to profit and expand in new areas of US control.
　
Polities that benefit from a crime are not necessarily guilty of the crime; however, it is still reasonable to ask whether they contributed to the crime or whether they were simply unwitting "beneficiaries."

Justice and freedom demand that we ask these questions in the context of a wide-sweeping judicial investigation. Failing that, we should pay heed to George Orwell’s assertion: "To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country."

　

By Mark Taliano


_________________________________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open