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Why B.C. may be in for a long, hot summer
A dry spring, a warmer than usual Pacific Ocean, and an El Niño means the hot weather could be here to stay
Whenever temperatures approach 30 C in Metro Vancouver, it’s a talker.
While the thermostat does get close once or twice each summer, this particular heat wave has a lot of added factors. First of all, it’s early, as seasonal highs for Vancouver right now are just 20 C.
And the forecast temperatures will likely end up 10 degrees above that this weekend — numbers more reminiscent of July or August.
This heat wave will also be intense. Temperatures will steadily climb right across southern B.C. over the next few days, peaking on Sunday at 30 degrees for the South Coast and approaching the 40s in the Interior.
Daily temperature records will fall, but so too will many all-time hottest June day records. It looks like we will, at least, get close for places like Vancouver (30.6 C), Kelowna (38 C) and Kamloops (39.1 C).
Finally, this heat is just the latest ‘extreme’ in what has been an incredibly warm and dry year overall. Most of B.C. is coming out of a winter of record low snow packs.
Long range forecast calls for hot summer
This past May was the driest on record for most of the province. So far, just a fraction of expected June rain has fallen. And in general, temperatures have been above seasonal for weeks on end.
This provides that much more of an impact for the hot weather forecast when it comes to fire danger and drought concerns. After an explosive start to the fire season, and reservoirs dropping at an alarming speed, a dry forecast ramps up the danger and a hot one means evaporation of any moisture happens at a faster rate.
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Logging Plans Could Rekindle BC’s War in the Woods
Logging Plans Could Rekindle BC’s War in the Woods
Teal Jones marked our ‘no-go zone’ for clear-cut. Here’s what happens next.
Eight months ago, a hiker and friend of our organization found new surveying tape in the central Walbran Valley. There, centred around the iconic Castle Grove, stands one of the largest intact tracts of unlogged old growth rainforest on southern Vancouver Island.
The area was ground zero for B.C.’s war in the woods more than 20 years ago. Grassroots action swept the province and saved ancient forest in the nearby Carmanah Valley and in other parts of the Walbran.
Surveying tape usually signals new cutting, so I contacted Teal Jones, the logging company that holds rights to the area, and asked them about their plans. To my surprise, they got back to me — they even vowed to work to incorporate my concerns in their logging plans. This was a huge departure from the typical communications with logging companies active on Vancouver Island.
In a series of emails that lasted months, I highlighted the scarcity of forests of this quality and scale, the importance of these ecosystems, and the value of standing old-growth. I sent Teal Jones maps that highlighted the most ecologically sensitive areas — our ”no-go zone” for logging.
Just last week, Teal Jones sent us their plans, confirming eight new cut blocks immediately surrounding the Castle Grove. All eight fall in our top priority area for maintaining ecological integrity. This is the most sensitive part of the valley — a strip of primordial forest between the Walbran River and the boundary of Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park.
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Nine Months After Polley Breach, Alaskans Seek Compensation Guarantee from BC
Nine Months After Polley Breach, Alaskans Seek Compensation Guarantee from BC
Proposed northern BC mines ‘source of great angst in Juneau.’
Earlier this month, Heather Hardcastle, a commercial fisherwoman from Juneau, Alaska met in Williams Lake, B.C. with members of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation. They shared a meal of wild Alaskan salmon that Hardcastle brought as a symbolic gesture: This fish was a reminder of all there was to lose.
After lunch, Hardcastle and her team of Alaska visitors boarded a helicopter and flew 25 minutes away to the site of the Mount Polley accident, the scene of a massive breach last August of its mine waste dam near the town of Likely, B.C.
The breach released millions of cubic metres of contaminated water into Quesnel Lake, which feeds into the Fraser River.
Nine months later, Jacinda Mack, a Xatsull woman from the Soda Creek reserve and one of many residents living near the path of the spill, invited the Alaskans to Williams Lake to see firsthand the main effect of that accident.
On the Fraser River, contamination from the mine breachthreatened the run of Sockeye salmon that spawns in Quesnel Lake.
“We saw where [Mack] was raised, and where they used to fish on the Fraser where people fished for thousands of years, and they’re not fishing there anymore. It’s heartbreaking,” Hardcastle said. “It’s a stunning and gorgeous area but it was just so sad. It feels selfish to be thinking about us and our water, but it lit a fire under me. We have to do something.”
It was an eye-opening sight to Hardcastle, who lives and works in southeast Alaska, downstream from a number of open-pit mines located in northwest B.C., with more under construction and opening soon.
Hardcastle grew up in the 1970s, during which time her parents fought the B.C. Tulsequah Chief mine, located 65 kilometres north of Juneau, Alaska, which leaked acid mine drainage in 1957 and still hasn’t been cleaned up. The polluted Tulsequah River empties into the salmon-rich Taku River.
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BC Natural Gas Reserves Inflated, Revenues Overstated, Report Finds
BC Natural Gas Reserves Inflated, Revenues Overstated, Report Finds
Analyst David Hughes offers another challenge to the province’s nascent industry.
A new report on liquefied natural gas prospects for British Columbia challenges government claims that gas exports will lower greenhouse gas emissions, or generate $100 billion in profits for the province.
The report published today by David Hughes, one of Canada’s foremost energy analysts and a former federal government geoscientist, also contends that the provincial government has vastly overestimated the amount of gas available for export.
The National Energy Board has approved 12 export licences to Asia or the United States with another seven under review along the B.C. coast.* The provincial government, which has lowered taxes and royalties to promote the new industry, expects only three to five terminals may be eventually built.
Due to depressed oil prices, global competition and cost over-runs in the capital intensive industry, not one project has yet announced a final investment decision.
Government fact sheets claim, for example, that “British Columbia’s natural gas supply is estimated at over 2,933 trillion cubic feet,” or enough gas to last 150 years.
But Hughes notes the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission estimates raw gas reserves (gas that can be drilled and recovered based on existing economics and well data) for the province at 42.3 trillion cubic feet.
The commission calculates “marketable resources,” or what industry might be able to find, drill and frack — a highly uncertain figure, due to high decline rates and the spotty nature of unconventional shale resources — at 442 trillion cubic feet.
As a result, Hughes calls the government’s inflated figure of 2,933 trillion cubic feet, or 70 times more than proven reserves listed by the commission, “a false and irresponsible statement.”
Windfall profits questioned
Government claims about earning windfall profits from gas exports also have no basis in real economics, Hughes argues in his report.
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Who Is BC’s Big LNG Partner? A Petronas Primer
Who Is BC’s Big LNG Partner? A Petronas Primer
Group led by Malaysia’s national oil company aims to build terminal near Prince Rupert.
Just one week after the Lax Kw’alaams band rejected a $1-billion offer by Petronas to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at the mouth of the Skeena River in British Columbia, Premier Christy Clark has signed an agreement with Malaysia’s national oil company to “establish the path to a final investment decision on the project.”
Part of that path includes a long-term commitment by the provincial government not to raise natural gas royalties, regardless of changes in global prices for the commodity.
Natural gas, like oil, is one of the world’s most volatile commodities in price.
“With this certainty, industry can plan their operations over a longer period of time and commit capital to jobs and production needs, while the Province has a guaranteed royalty revenue each year,” said a government news release.
Pacific NorthWest LNG, which is largely owned by Petronas, has yet to make a final investment decision, and the proposed multibillion-dollar project near Prince Rupert must still pass an environmental review.
Just what kind of company is Petronas, and what’s its relationship to the Malaysian government? The Tyee looked at the public record.
1. The government of Malaysia set upthe national oil company in 1974 when oil prices jumped from $1.50 to $12. The government did so with the goal of safeguarding “the sovereign rights of Malaysia and the legitimate rights and interests of Malaysians in the ownership and development of petroleum resources.” The company’s success has helped the government to reach out to the Muslim world.
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Petronas Hoping To Buy First Nations Tribes’ Support For $1 Billion
Petronas Hoping To Buy First Nations Tribes’ Support For $1 Billion
Petronas is willing to pony up nearly $1 billion to secure the support of First Nations tribes in western Canada for its natural gas export project. The Malaysian state-owned oil company is offering C$1.15 billion (USD$950 million) to the Lax Kw’alaams tribe in order to build an LNG export facility at the Prince Rupert port.
The offer would consist of annual payments over 40 years. For example, Petronas would pay over $12 million in the first year, with payments rising by 1 to 5 percent annually (depending on production), culminating in a $50 million payment in the 40th year. Also, tribe members would have a sort of preferred status for open jobs at the Petronas’ Pacific Northwest LNG facility. The offeramounts to about $320,000 per person. The Lax Kw’alaams tribe will vote on the offer in May.
Related: Is This The Top For Oil Prices For Now?
The tribes argue the price is hardly exorbitant. When one considers it will be spread over 40 years and the project will result in large land use impacts on local communities, the $1 billion is a fair price. “This will be a real game-changer for many First Nations in terms of how they can build their future,” John Rustad, the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister in British Columbia, told the Globe and Mail in an interview on April 30.
Interestingly, it could create a new benchmark for major fossil fuel projects on indigenous lands. For other projects to move forward, affected tribes could use the pending offer for the Lax Kw’alaams as leverage.
The big offer from Petronas is somewhat of an afterthought for the C$36 billion proposal. That steep price tag has forced a rethink within the Malaysian company. In December 2014, Petronas decided to put off a final investment decision, hesitating to commit that much money to an LNG export project during a period in which LNG markets are not doing so well.
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BC Climate Change Progress Stalled, Critics Say
BC Climate Change Progress Stalled, Critics Say
‘We know we need to do more,’ says environment minister.
Lately, Premier Christy Clark has been bragging about British Columbia’s record fighting climate change, but observers say that pride is misplaced.
“They’re talking a lot about being a world leader in climate action,” said Jens Wieting, a campaigner with the Sierra Club of BC. That’s misleading considering the province’s recent record on carbon emissions, he said. “We are currently moving in the wrong direction.”
A B.C. government press release dated April 13 trumpeted the “world-leading standard B.C. has set for climate action” and challenged other jurisdictions to meet or beat the province’s standard. It noted Clark was set to speak to meetings of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund on April 17 about the B.C. carbon tax, “which sets a powerful example for the world.”
Clark also congratulated California on new targets in late April that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030, noting, “In B.C., we have been leading by example since 2008, when we introduced our carbon tax.”
Even the election of Rachel Notley as premier of Alberta was occasion for Clark to say that maybe now that province would consider adopting a carbon tax like B.C.’s.
Rising emissions
But as the Sierra Club’s Wieting points out, the hot air from Clark and the B.C. government comes as the province’s climate change record has slipped.
While B.C. claimed to have met its interim target of a six per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2007 levels in 2012, a year later they had gone back up by 2.4 per cent to 63 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Wieting said. He cited recently released figures from theNational Inventory of greenhouse gas sources and sinks.
“We can’t afford to move in the wrong direction and see our emissions increasing,” he said. “The science is clear we’re running out of time.”
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What Kinder Morgan is Keeping Secret About its Trans Mountain Spill Response Plans
What Kinder Morgan is Keeping Secret About its Trans Mountain Spill Response Plans
Kinder Morgan, the company currently seeking permission to nearly triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline to carry Albertan crude to the west coast, has engaged in a protracted fight with the province of British Columbia in an effort to keep its oil spill response plans a secret.
The company alleges its motivation has to do with ‘security concerns’ although a look back at the to and fro with the province of B.C. paints a story of either incompetence or pure, defenseless hubris.
Either way, what Kinder Morgan is refusing to produce for B.C. and other intervenors in the pipeline review process, the company willingly disclosed south of the border for portions of the pipeline that extend to Washington State.
A read through the detailed spill response plans Kinder Morgan has in place for the U.S. shows just how far the company went to prove they can handle a pipeline spill.
It also highlights how outlandish it is that Kinder Morgan has not released similarly-detailed plans to the province of B.C.
It is also troubling that Kinder Morgan expects the government of B.C. to consent to a massive pipeline expansion — the proposal calls for a twinning of the pipeline which would lead to a fivefold increase in tanker traffic — without adequate assurances the best available emergency plans are in place.
So, what did Kinder Morgan tell Washington State that it refuses to tell B.C.?
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Alaskans Ring Alarm Bells Over Potential for More Mount Polley Disasters As B.C. Pushes Forward With New Mines
Alaskans Ring Alarm Bells Over Potential for More Mount Polley Disasters As B.C. Pushes Forward With New Mines
Worried Alaskans who fear lucrative fisheries and tourism industries are at risk from lax B.C. oversight of mine safety are meeting with state officials next week to ask the U.S. State Department to push for more input on mine development along the border of northwest B.C. and southeast Alaska.
“We are calling for an equal seat at the table. We want equal representation on the part of Americans and Alaskans when it comes to how these watersheds are developed,” said Heather Hardcastle, a commercial salmon fisher based in Juneau.
“We take all the risks and the costs and get none of the benefits.”
Hardcastle is a member of a coalition of Alaskan mayors, First Nations, businessmen and fishers who were horrified by the Mount Polley tailings pond collapse last August. Their concerns were exacerbated by last week’s provincial government report that found a weak foundation and design were responsible for the failure that saw an estimated 25 million cubic metres of waste water and toxic sludge flood from the copper and gold mine’s tailings pond into rivers and lakes.
Although the unidentified glacial layer under the dam and design changes that resulted in overly steep slopes on the embankment were pinpointed as the main causes, the report refers to multiple problems, ranging from over-topping to questionable safety margins.
The picture of failure – and the seeming inability of provincial or company inspectors to identify the problems – is raising already elevated apprehensions in Alaska, where the Red Chris Mine began operating Tuesday.
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Did Alberta Just Break a Fracking Earthquake World Record?
Did Alberta Just Break a Fracking Earthquake World Record?
Hydraulic fracturing, a technology used to crack open difficult oil and gas formations, appears to have set off a swarm of earthquakes near Fox Creek, Alberta, including a record-breaking tremor with a felt magnitude of 4.4 last week.
That would likely make it the largest felt earthquake ever caused by fracking, a development that experts swore couldn’t happen a few years ago.
Fracking operations in British Columbia’s Montney shale generated similar seismic activity of that magnitude last year, and earthquake scientists at Ontario’s Western University are still analyzing the two events to see which is the largest.
“The location of the earthquake is consistent with being induced by hydraulic fracturing operations,” confirmed Peter Murchland, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator.
“The AER regards all changes in seismicity that have the potential to indicate an increased risk associated with hydrocarbon production seriously,” Murchland added.
Jeffrey Gu, a physics professor at the University of Alberta, said the Alberta Geological Survey and other agencies were investigating the Fox Creek swarm, which hit about 260 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. But Gu said he could not disclose their findings at this time. He offered no details on the scale or scope of the investigation.
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Canada regulator says Kinder Morgan wins battle with B.C. suburb | Canada | Reuters
Canada regulator says Kinder Morgan wins battle with B.C. suburb | Canada | Reuters.
CALGARY Alberta (Reuters) – Canada’s energy regulator ruled on Thursday that Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP must be allowed access to a park in a Vancouver suburb in order to complete technical work for the planned C$5.4 billion($4.81 billion) expansion of its Trans Mountain oil pipeline.
In its first order on record to a Canadian municipality, the National Energy Board said the City of Burnaby must allow the company to carry out surveys and studies at Burnaby Mountain, a conservation site.
Burnaby sought to block the company’s access to the site after city officials and crews hired by Kinder Morgan clashed last month over whether the company was allowed to cut down a handful of trees on the mountain to do survey work for the new route, work Kinder Morgan said the National Energy Board had approved.
