Dear Editor,
Re: “LNG expansion defended,” Letters, July 2.
I must commend the FortisBC staff person who wrote to defend an expansion of the Tilbury LNG plant. His defence highlights the supposed “green”-ness of liquefied natural gas (LNG) while ignoring how LNG is actually procured through fracking.
Fracking is the “process of injecting water at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract gas.”
Using tons and tons of clean water to bring gas to market? How is this green?
The Tilbury expansion project is unsafe and unhealthy for the people living nearby as well as the salmon and other living things in the Fraser River. There is enough traffic on the Fraser without adding huge LNG tankers that would have to turn around in a congested space. And it would be right across the river from the jet fuel storage facility. The potential for a devastating fireball explosion in the river and kilometres beyond (Silvercity and where I live in the ALR) is too horrible to contemplate.
If that is not enough, there is actually no good economic case for LNG. There is a glut on the worldwide market and it costs more to produce it than it can be sold for. And the Tilbury expansion would produce more pollution than B.C. could mitigate in order to reach its climate change targets. This is the worst fossil fuel project ever. It does not succeed on safety, health, economic and environmental fronts. Tilbury and B.C. should be gearing down from fossil fuel, not increasing its use.
De Whalen
RICHMOND
