Dear Sir:
Did you hear the one about the premier and the man that went into a bar? You can find it in an article in the June 8 issue of The Terrace Standard. The premier was speaking to a man who was unclear as to whether he was against tar sands or natural gas lines or both.
Since we all know that a bar is the best place to get reliable information, Ms. Clark concluded that the reason none of her party’s candidates were elected in the northwest was because those of us in the northwest were too stupid to understand the difference between pipelines carrying a slurry from the tar sands or fracked natural gas, thus creating pipeline confusion.
Fortunately, years of TV and newspaper ads, glossy brochures, town hall meetings and free lunches has improved our IQ so that she thinks the phantom LNG projects will work for one more election.
There are a lot of numbers in the June 8 article and it is hard to determine if the premier is handling the truth carelessly, guessing or pulling numbers out of thin air. 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.
She then informs us that B.C. has the richest natural gas supply in the world as it is easy to get at and is deep. I am no expert on fracking but it seems to me that deeper does not mean easier.
The premier then provides us with more numbers – in the next 14 years 2.3 billion people will join the middle class. Considering the total world population is some where over 7 billion and that everything I have read states that the middle class is disappearing this makes no sense. However, if it was true we better get going finding other sources of energy rather than destroying the planet by using more and more gas and oil.
Premier Clark also assures us that natural gas is safe. I assume she means if we do not disturb it. As I am not a drinking man, I do not get information from bars but from geologists and other scientists who tell us earthquakes and polluted ground water are directly connected to fracking.
This premier unfortunately has all her eggs in one LNG basket, promising 100,000 jobs and billions of dollars by neglecting all other more viable prospects than the fantasy natural gas projects that likely will not happen.
A few job market numbers that she forgot to mention – oil patch and gas employees make up 1 per cent of B.C.’s workforce, forestry 4 per cent, construction 36 per cent, high tech 17 per cent, agriculture 4 per cent and retail 36 per cent. Oil and gas corporations’ tax credit in 2015 topped $1 billion.
So, Madam premier, if you are intending to convince the voter to buy into your LNG fantasy will you try to use some numbers that are at least believable.
Meanwhile here is an idea for some entrepreneur to design and manufacture (in China of course) water taps with built in fire extinguishers. I believe they would be a hot item in the Peace and around the world.
John Jensen,
Terrace, B.C.
