Economists write papers on the circular flow of income but they don’t include the flow between politicians, businesses and the public treasury. In BC, it is commonplace. If you are an observer grown cynical – like the writer – you may wonder what secret benefits are to be found in the circular flow of income between Government, the governing party of British Columbia from 2001 to 2017 and the companies they purport to regulate.
Before BC’s last provincial election, the governing party was trailing in the polls, still suffering from the HST fiasco, their failed effort to shift sales tax burdens from businesses to individuals. Premier Clark’s handlers decided to weave her a new set of clothes. When first shown to the public, oblivious cheerleaders in the corporate media rose in unison to applaud. Like the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s story, alternative media revealed the truth.
Three months before the 2013 provincial election, Christy Clark’s government issued a Speech from the Throne that made a few grandiloquent asseverations. Today, the 2017 Speech from the Throne was presented to […]
At The Gazetteer, RossK and friends are commenting about reports that Petronas does or does not aim to bail from the land of Sparkle Ponies. In my opinion, discussion of what’s been said or not said […]
Normzig, “No matter how many speeches are made or how many permits are issued and how many rainbow forecasts are shown, the only way BC is getting LNG plants anytime soon is […]
The following excerpts are from a piece in DeSmog Blog. It is written by Martyn Brown, an articulate commentator on public affairs and, years ago, Premier Gordon Campbell’s Chief of Staff. The linked piece is the fourth of four parts about B.C.’s climate action plan. The entire series is worth the time of anyone seeking a more complete understanding of the intended and unintended directions of BC’s current energy policies. It is excellent work.
If members of the BC Legislature value ethical standards in business, they must revoke the LNG Project Agreements Act, the enabling act passed for Malaysian National Oil Company Inc.(PETRONAS). That company’s senior management answers directly to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is implicated by the FBI in misappropriations of more than $3 billion.
Spin doctors understand that statements should be given with certainty in places where they won’t be tested for accuracy. The corporate press is one of those places. In words of Jonathan Swift: “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect.” However, I’m always willing to test the words of a person who intends to mislead.
Christy Clark and her crew spent more than a billion dollars through the Ministry of Natural Gas Development, gave away billions more in gas industry subsidies and promised low or no taxes, taxpayer-paid infrastructure and subsidized electricity; all in the hope of creating an LNG industry that had a competitive disadvantage from the start. Critics like the one you’re reading knew LNG wealth promises were hollow but this Government decided to continue wasting vast sums to avoid admitting failures from incompetence and poor judgement. They will claim bad luck and unforeseeable circumstances; knowledgeable people will know differently.
According to Ms. Clark, LNG producers have already spent $20 billion without having made a decision to build and having no buyers for the gas – $20 billion can buy a lot of lunches.
If this was real money imagine what could be done investing in green technology – creating meaningful, well-paid jobs, and having clean air.
In an oversupplied market, many LNG projects will struggle to secure buyers. Even if heavily subsidized projects move forward, LNG supply would hit the market at a bad time. Research predicts that the market will remain oversupplied…
In 2001, BC voters were treated to a comprehensive set of lies. In 2005, promises were made for 400,000 new energy jobs. In 2013, Liberals claimed a trillion dollars of economic activity would result in as much as $260 billion of government revenues and a debt free province.
…easily-influenced voters in BC opted for Christy’s Clark more economically pleasing vision of the future. But it was phoney baloney, conjured up in a three-week period in a “rush assignment” given to Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Doug Foster by Clark’s newly-hired communications director Ben Chin, formerly a CBC TV news anchor in Ontario and after running for the provincial Liberals there—and losing—he became VP of Communications with the Ontario Power Authority. In that job he infamously advised an OPA official—who was troubled by critical media reports—to “throw him some work” to get a particular journalist onside. “It would be a good score,” Chin said.
The hazards of transporting LNG through narrow waterways are generally ignored yet the danger is real, particularly in populated areas, such as the lower Fraser River and Howe Sound. One reason that foreign companies may be attracted to British Columbia is its lax regulatory environment.
Another publication, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI), provides detail of the marketplace for LNG. It is now an international exchange much different than the one that first excited the ex-policeman and small town lawyer who thought, with equally ill-equipped assistants, they could negotiate for British Columbia at boardroom tables of giant multinational energy corporations.
An old expression says, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” The maxim doesn’t require rewards for scratching be equal and, often, they are not.
According to Elections BC, AltaGas Ltd. and associates contributed a little more than $70,000 to the BC Liberals. It’s been money well spent… At $110,000 per GWh, AltaGas’ revenue from BC Hydro would be worth $143 million in 2016…
…To gamble away our world class treasure of a river and the cultural and economic values that are sustained by it for a relatively few short term jobs that will leave us with less than nothing when they end, to give away our birthright to a corporate entity some call the Malaysian Mafia, to imagine that there is anything natural about fracked methane, that thousands of kilometers of pipeline across wilderness will leave streams and rivers and wildlife habitat intact, that massive dredging and construction in the Skeena estuary will have “no significant effect” on salmon and other species, that the earth can somehow afford yet another huge dump of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, or that this will somehow benefit our children and grandchildren, is to live in a dream world.
Coastal communities have reasons to distrust the provincial ferry service and its political masters. One issue is discrimination, because people on saltwater pay onerous fares while inland ferry users enjoy free sailing, services that have cost the province over $200 million during Christy Clark’s time as Premier. The intermediate-class ferry new-construction, S-Class refits and the planned LNG fuel facilities are proceeding without full disclosure and public discussion of details. To avoid risk to passengers, BC Ferries has long had a policy of restricting dangerous cargoes to special sailings. Now, they plan to sail with LNG tanker trucks fueling vessels while parked beside customers’ vehicles…
130 Canadian and international scientists urged the Trudeau government to reject a recent Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) report that concluded the Petronas-backed Pacific NorthWest LNG project could be built safely for the environment. Joseph Welch’s famous quote could be directed to Rich Coleman: “Have you no sense of decency, sir?
“I think there is an atmosphere of total terror.”
It’s a story of intrigue, corruption and multiple murders, stretching from the streets of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, to Switzerland, France and the US as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, all the way to Australia’s doorstep. “You know I can’t talk much, he said, because my phone might be bugged”.
The money involved is astonishing…
Hi Norm, I think you might find this book review, from the New York Review of Books, interesting. I think…
Once the "moral majority" decided that it didn't have any responsibility for large chunks of society, it became quite acceptable…
Impossible tasks? Build a ready-to-operate hospital in 6 days? China did it. Twice. Move ocean water to the Gobi Desert…
r Just read your link to a very detailed Richmond News report. For the NDP faithful this mindless LNG embroglio…
If anything could keep sleep-deprived President Trump busy threatening new tariffs it is likely to be Europe’s decision to remove…