Activist Claim: Foreign-funded activist video claims gas companies in B.C. are the cause of a drought
The Facts: Natural gas production in B.C. uses very little water, with most of it being recycled, causing minimal impact on the environment.
The Source:
Here are some facts and sources to have a reasonable conversation about B.C.’s natural gas industry:
- The Wilderness Committee was ruled as an anti-Alberta energy activist group in the Allan Report and has been a frequent recipient of funding from foreign organizations like the Tides Foundation.
http://www.tides.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2016-Tides-Foundation-Form-990.pdf
- According to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, in 2018 oil and gas-related short-term water use approvals and water licenses accounted for only 0.003% of the total volume of mean annual runoff in northeast B.C.
https://www.bcogc.ca/how-we-regulate/safeguard-the-environment/water-management/ - Withdrawn water for oil and gas activities amounts to 0.001% of the total annual water runoff from those sources.
https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/publications/planet-fire-lets-end-fracking-bc#:~:text=Fracking%20in%20BC%20pollutes%20half,to%20meet%20our%20climate%20targets.https://www.bcogc.ca/files/reports/Technical-Reports/2020-Q2-Water-Management-Summary.pdf
- This water is also being recycled with some companies like Tourmaline Oil, a major oil and gas producer in B.C., which recycles 100% of their flow back water and 74% of their total water use
https://www.bcogc.ca/how-we-regulate/safeguard-the-environment/water-management/#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20approximately%203.28%20million,the%20number%20of%20fracture%20stimulations.
https://www.bcogc.ca/stories/ensuring-the-safe-and-responsible-storage-of-produced-water/ According to the IEA, over the last decade, gas switching has saved around 500 million tonnes of CO2– an effect equivalent to putting an extra 200 million EVs running on zero-carbon electricity on the road over the same period
https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-gas-in-todays-energy-transitions- Despite their calls for a wind-down of traditional fuel use, the International Energy Agency still agrees that natural gas maintains a climate benefit over other fuels sources, even at leakage rates far greater than what is currently documented.
https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-gas-in-todays-energy-transitions
Stories that get it right
Commentary: Will Europe’s Energy Crisis Finally Force Quebec and Ottawa To Join The Real World? – David Yager
In the summer of 2021, the Quebec government decided to show the world how to decarbonize energy.
In July, the province declined approval for the $14 billion Energie Saguenay LNG project export project which would move natural gas from western Canada to a liquification and export terminal in Saguenay Quebec. This would require a new high-volume gas pipeline 780 km. from northern Ontario. By using hydroelectricity for energy, the promoters figured it would result in an 84% reduction in GHG emissions compared to a similar project in the US.
CAC Premier Francois Legault was originally supportive, but last summer Quebec denied all permits for several reasons. One was an increase in emissions in Canada to supply the gas. Another was local opposition including a politically active and vocal cadre of environmentalists.
The impact on global emissions if this LNG replaced coal, or that this LNG was cleaner than other sources, was never considered.
