NIMBYISM has gone rampant here in the valley. “Regional District opposes LNG projects on the coastline”? These people are making unsubstantiated comments that the uneducated public take as fact. Natural gas is clean energy. This project will be exporting clean energy to the Asian market to help replace heavily polluting coal plants and to provide energy to towns that have no electricity at all.
Canada is the second largest country geographically and produces less than two per cent greenhouse emissions. We are able to achieve this by innovation through big industry. We are a natural resource country with the largest potash deposits, we have numerous precious metal mines and yes gas and oil. These industries have the strictest regulations in the world.
There are numerous LNG plants around the world. Some are located in the most treacherous waters — the North Sea, where there are hurricanes, ice flows and spontaneous weather changes. Not one has exploded, or been damaged. This is not new technology, and has been successfully used in locations like this. Are Canadians not capable of such technical expertise?
Pipelines are the safest way to transport fluids. Very rarely they leak; again because of new technology. If it was punctured, highly unlikely, the gas would vent to the air.
This gas is coming from B.C.; supporting our northern region. Steelhead is proposing to hire and train local residents for the construction and operations. You might say construction is only short term employment. Once a carpenter is finished building a house, is that it? Once you are a ticketed welder, pipefitter etc. there are other jobs to go to. That simply is the nature of construction industries. The island is desperate for good, diverse employment opportunities.
Canada would not be the great country today with the highest standard of living in the world if we had this NIMBY attitude over a 100 years ago. We wouldn’t have the railway joining our coasts. We wouldn’t have the road systems or the hydro plants providing us with the cleanest and most reliable energy there is.
You are not saving the world by rejecting this project. You are hurting the local economy and delaying third world countries from coming into the 21 century.
Y. Hailey
Duncan