The trillion dollar charade has ended and the sparkle ponies are pissed. Not that the whole thing was anything but a big lie from the start, created to save a desperate Liberal party that worried it was headed for defeat at the 2013 polls.
Sustaining the fantasy cost taxpayers a massive sum of money and put BC’s so-called free enterprise coalition in bed with private and foreign government-owned corporations, a few controlled by individuals with appalling records.
Taxpayers were also on the hook for the huge sums paid Liberal Party hangers-on.
#ICYMI Liberal #bcgov paid Gordon Wilson $600/day as Buy B.C. LNG advocate. Never sold an ounce of LNG. #bcpoli https://t.co/CzQ9OC3ttO
— theBreaker.CA (@theBreakerNews) July 25, 2017
Today’s announcement by Malaysia’s state owned energy conglomerate makes clear what many voices in alternative media have been saying for some time. A basic understanding of market economics was the only skill needed but that ignores cultural barriers and environmental problems, which were significant.
The following arrived in my email today.
The Pacific NorthWest LNG project is dead.
Karen Tam Wu, acting B.C. director at the Pembina Institute, made the following statement:
“The Pacific NorthWest LNG project would have been one of the largest carbon polluters in Canada. With today’s announcement that Petronas will no longer pursue the project, British Columbia can truly move forward on the path to clean growth and seize untapped economic opportunities in all parts of the province.
“Petronas and its partners cited shifts in the energy sector as key to their decision. Indeed, LNG demand and prices have fallen as the world transitions to renewable sources of energy. We now have an important opportunity to ensure B.C. is not left behind as the global economy shifts and the costs of a changing climate begin to mount.
“Across B.C., communities have stood up and said LNG development doesn’t fit with their vision for a prosperous economy. The cancellation of this project highlights the need for B.C.’s new government to act quickly to stand up for healthy and safe communities, grow sustainable resource sector jobs, build a strong clean tech sector, position B.C. to be competitive in the changing global economy, and make clean choices more affordable.”
More info: http://www.pembina.org/media-release/pnw-lng-cancelled
The following is from an In-Sights article from a few years back. Had things gone according to Liberal promises, we’d have already accrued $38.5 billion of the hoped-for $260 billion in LNG revenues.
February 13, 2013, three months before her first general election as Premier, Christy Clark announced:
…the new British Columbia Prosperity Fund to ensure communities, First Nations and all British Columbians benefit from the development of a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry…
LNG development is poised to trigger approximately $1 trillion in cumulative GDP within British Columbia over the next 30 years and that means more than $100 billion will flow directly to the Prosperity Fund.
Province wide, LNG is expected to create on average 39,000 annual direct, indirect and induced full-time jobs during a nine-year construction period. As well, there could be as many as 75,000 full-time jobs required once all LNG plants are in full operation…
Factsheet
…Projected total revenues to government are estimated between $130 billion and $260 billion over the next 30 years. In order to maximize the benefits of these developments to future generations of British Columbians, the provincial government is establishing a new British Columbia Prosperity Fund…
During the election campaign, Liberals promised that LNG revenues would not only ensure a debt free British Columbia but gas production would also fund essential spending for health care, education and social services…
Categories: LNG
IN-SIGHTS 
bovine excrement baffels brains
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low info voter fodder?
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It’s one of those cases where, “I told you so…” doesn’t have a fully-satisfying ring to it. So much time, wealth and attention has been wasted, while the province diddled on this pipe dream.
I wonder what the BC Lib backers are saying now?
In a recent Chilliwack Progress interview with Chilliwack BC Lib MLA Laurie Throness last week, Throness said, “I think Christy Clark has done a tremendous job, balanced the budget five times. She has scratched an industry out of the ground with LNG, which is now up and running, the final investment decision in Squamish has been made. Did that in four years. I think she deserves to stay and in fact I hope that she doesn’t leave.”
Delusion: “A delusion is a belief that is held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.”
Thanks to sites like Norm’s, we have the contradictory evidence. The key is to get people to read it, understand it — and change, or at least stop their knees from jerking.
Overheard at a recent social gathering, two 70-something men who have turned off the news and any alternate sources and are, basically, running on fumes — fuming about the two “idiots” now in charge.
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I took a look at the comments on the CBC website related to the Petronas decision and couldn’t help myself conclude that BC has a lot of stupid people. There is no other way to explain it Norm. The most liked comment from a ” Jimmy Jack ” had over 100 thumbs up on his comment where he disagrees with the CEO of Petronas who clearly spells out that market conditions led to the company’s decision to back away. That is something you & hundreds of others have been suggesting for years. The business facts are quite clear. Yet over 100 BC residents displayed their stupidity by agreeing with his comment. His of course was not the only one that puts the blame on the week old NDP/Green government.
Are people really that stupid ? The answer is yes. And they are joined as I just read on twitter by at least one ( so far ) stupid BC journalist Vaughn Palmer who puts the blame on John Horgan. When I think about the stupidity displayed by this decision, it’s easier to understand why these people voted for Christy Clark.
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Hi Guy in Victoria,
I think the 100 up votes was probably 100 up votes from bots. TPTB have discovered social media and are doing their d**** best to control it (and us).
I think ordinary people (like me, lol) are really smart. The internet is a powerful force for pulling back the curtain on bull****.
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In this article, Vaughn Palmer says that the NDP is risking future LNG investment in BC because it wants to “Ensure British Columbians benefit from liquefied natural gas projects by requiring proposals to meet the following four conditions: express guarantees of jobs and training opportunities for British Columbians; a fair return for our resource; respect and make partners of First Nations; and protect our air, land and water, including living up to our climate commitments.”
He calls that “driving a harder bargain with investors.” If that’s a harder bargain, what the hell did the BC Liberals settle for?
He also says future investment is at risk because the NDP wants its Environment Minister to “Work with the minister of finance to implement an increase of the carbon tax by $5 per tonne per year, beginning April 1, 2018. Take measures to expand the carbon tax to fugitive emissions.”
Strange. That would put BC in line with the amount of carbon tax the BC Liberals committed to by 2022, well before any plant is operating. And because the BC Liberals and the industry say fugitive emissions are well under control there shouldn’t be much impact from any expansion to that source in any event.
Why didn’t he wail about the BC Liberals risking investment when they had essentially the same stance on the carbon tax regarding this Petronas project?
He asks two questions: “First, if the project was as much of a steal for the Malaysians as the NDP claimed, why didn’t Petronas go ahead and cash in? Second, if the project was as bad for British Columbians as the New Democrats maintained, why weren’t they celebrating its demise?”
The answer to the first is clearly enunciated in the Petronas statement and should have been obvious to any objective journalist for the past several years.
The answer to the second is in Minister Mungall’s statement that “our government is committed to working with the LNG industry to ensure we are competitive.” For a journalist to suggest the NDP should be celebrating the demise of this project because it did its duty as the Official Opposition shows a shocking bias, not inconsistent with the fact that BC Liberal MLAs and their surrogates were out with very similar talking points before this article appeared.
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As Barnum observed; “There is a sucker born every minute”.
J. Grueber’s reply: “His estimate is laughably low.”
The Eye’s comment: ” It seems all the suckers belong to the BC Liberal party.”
LNG was an electoral fraud, which was maintained by Clark at great public expense.
All fraudsters must have willing rubes for the fraud to work and again in BC, there seems to be ample rubes.
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Headline yesterday(July 26, 2017):
“Vancouver housing market showing signs of overheating, CMHC says”
No, really??!! OMG!!!
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/the-market/vancouver-housing-market-showing-signs-of-overheating-cmhc-says/article35805257/
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