The Vancouver Sun – rapidly becoming, if it hasn’t already become the “Pravda” of Vancouver – has done it again with another article supporting LNG and the proposed Squamish plant. This one is by a father and daughter combination and they come to what to me, at any rate, is an amazing conclusion.

LNG would help the climate? Puh-leeze!

If you just read the headline you would assume that this story has British Columbia saving the world from atmospheric pollution and global warming if it just starts to produce more natural gas. If you work your way through the article – and it’s pretty crappy – you’ll see that their point is that natural gas is not as bad as coal or oil. They conclude by suggesting that it would be a very good thing if British Columbia would produce more LNG and, of course, built an LNG facility in Squamish.

Here is the reasoning as I understand it:

If BC “fracks” away, pollutes the ground and the water around it, uses water that is needed elsewhere, dumps chemical-laden water into the water table, further pollutes the air by extracting the natural gas and releasing massively climate-damaging fugitive methane emissions, pipes it dangerously to Squamish, uses enormous amounts of energy to convert it to LNG, then puts it on tankers which by the most conservative estimates will cause great risk to Howe Sound; it’s then taken to, say, China, and is burned causing more pollution into the atmosphere – that this is a very good thing that British Columbia is doing to save the atmosphere and lessen global warming. Hooray for us!

If on the other hand, we leave it in the ground, that would be a very bad thing for the environment. Like, Wow!

Does anybody believe this stuff?

I’m quite happy to have the Podtmedia papers falling all over themselves to kiss Harper and Clark’s backsides and support their undying love for fossil fuels in all forms – the reason being that nobody believes these papers anymore, so shrill have they become. They seem not only unwilling but unable to present the other side of the story and so far as I am aware don’t even report the extremely active goings-on of those who oppose LNG and the Squamish facility.

Sometimes it takes a while but eventually people notice this. They know that there are an awful lot of very intelligent people, not all of the left, who are opposed to LNG generally and the Squamish facility specifically and that that number is growing. When they don’t see that mentioned in either of the Vancouver papers, they conclude that the Vancouver papers are stuck in a right-wing time warp.

Harcourt joins Team LNG

I’ve always felt that in political debates it’s more important as to who your enemies are than your friends. To have Postmedia as an enemy is infinitely better than having them as a friend.

The same can be said for Mike Harcourt, who has jumped into the fray on behalf of Woodfibre LNG and their ventriloquist dummy, Resource Works. This latter organization has poured out such atrocious untruths that they have instantly become, at least in the Sea-to-Sky and Squamish communities, utterly unbelievable.

Mr. Harcourt, who was a mediocrity as mayor of Vancouver and an utter failure as Premier – his inability to run a government destroying his political party in the bargain – is talking a lot of nonsense about rigorous environmental proceedings and public process.

It is amazing to me that people like Harcourt still believe that if you tell a big enough fib, people will believe it. That may have been true at one time but it’s not anymore.

The public isn’t stupid

People in our community have seen and heard what happens at the National Energy Board or any one of the numerous environmental assessment proceedings and know that these are fixed, are essentially blowjobs for industry and do handstands to avoid letting the public have a proper say or cross-examine the experts.

There is one area of inquiry that Postmedia, Mr. Harcourt, the governments and fossil fuel proponents have avoided like the plague, and it’s critically important.

LNG tanker risks ignored

As has appeared in these pages several times, LNG tanker traffic in Howe Sound is far too dangerous to even contemplate. The most conservative of the American experts is Dr. Mike Hightower of Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose standards have been accepted by the US government.

Taking his measurements as to how far tankers must be from land and from other vessels, there is no way in God’s green earth that Howe Sound is suitable for LNG tanker traffic. Dr. Hightower is considered very conservative in this area and the middle-of-the-road expertise suggests it’s far more dangerous.

Surely we must all ask ourselves why this issue has not been thoroughly canvassed Postmedia, Resource Works, senior governments, Mike Harcourt, and others. What are they afraid of?

The answer to that question is simple – the truth. The possibility that Environmentalists, of all people, might be right on something is too much for them to stomach.

Concerns justified

Well, I’m here to tell you, on this issue especially we are right. There is no quarrel with that from anyone who knows anything about this issue.

In fact, my story in these pages so shook Woodfibre LNG that the president called an emergency meeting on a Saturday to announce that another route would be pursued. As you read here, Commander Roger Sweeny (RCN Ret), an expert on these matters and a lifelong landowner in Howe Sound, quickly concluded that this alternative was far, far worse than the original!

This obviously accounts for the fact that Woodfibre LNG and Resource Works have been struck dumb ever since.

I consider myself very fortunate to be able to use these pages, from time to time, to bring to you these facts so unpleasant to Woodfibre LNG, their high paid truth-benders, their captive politicians and pliable press that they dare not even mention them.

If I may say so, we are all very fortunate to have these pages to read after gagging on at the rubbish published by Woodfibre LNG and their acolytes.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.”

― Sir Walter Scott

One Stewart Muir is the executive director of Resource Works, an elite organization formed to tout Woodfibre LNG. Muir was once the business editor and deputy managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, thus the quote from Sir Walter Scott seems manifestly appropriate.

Muir is responsible for a work of fiction called A Citizen’s Guide to LNG, which I dealt with in two recent columns when I asked some pointed questions about the deceptive, indeed untrue, statements and inferences contained therein. Instead of getting a response, Resource Works, under Muir’s signature, delivered an ad hominem attack on those who are fighting Woodfibre, as follows:

[quote]…the anti-resource movement has executed a textbook campaign to create public fear based on false information and wild exaggeration about what it means to export natural gas from BC.

Those who are constrained by professional codes of behaviour have looked on in dismay as deliberately misleading statements have met with public credulity.[/quote]

What vacuous, flatulent, pomposity this is! Perhaps since Resource Works has so much money to spend, they’ll put out another screed outlining the professional code of behaviour that binds editors of newspapers. This shouldn’t be too expensive – a couple of hazy words of mumbo jumbo ought to suffice.

Science manipulated to paint false picture of safety

I am going to return to the questions I raised in past columns, but first let me bring readers some news they will find impossible to believe!

Here is what I wrote March 15 last:

[quote]They (Resource Works) concede that if tankers go too close to the shore, there could be a problem. However, they assure us there is no problem because they spoke to Dr. Mike Hightower, of Sandia Laboratories in New Mexico, a world acknowledged expert on the subject, who’s developed a protocol accepted by US authorities for the distances ships must maintain between themselves and the shore.

Resource Works has produced a number of videos…In all of them the interviewer is an attractive young lady named Meena Mann…In one of them…Dr. Hightower appears to talk to Ms. Mann about LNG and tankers, and you would likely conclude that there is very little danger, if any, posed by LNG tankers in Howe Sound.[/quote]

Here is what Sandia has reported, based upon Dr. Hightower’s work:

[quote]Sandia National Laboratories defines for the US Department of Energy three Hazard Zones (also called “Zones of Concern”) surrounding LNG carriers. The largest Zone is 2.2 miles/3,500 meters around the vessel, indicating that LNG ports and tankers must be located at least that distance from civilians.[/quote]

Thanks to Dr. Eoin Finn and Cmdr. Roger Sweeny (RCN Ret.), we learned that, contrary to the misrepresentation by Resource Works, Dr. Hightower’s formula in fact made Howe Sound totally inappropriate as a route for LNG tankers.

Woodfibre changes course with tanker route

Well, folks, upon learning that their booster friends had been flat caught out, on orders from the president, Woodfibre LNG panicked and held an emergency meeting on March 21 to examine the sudden, awkward tanker route question raised here in The Common Sense Canadian.

Now I pause here to observe that Mair’s Axiom I – namely, “You make a serious mistake assuming people in charge know what the hell they are doing” – is amply demonstrated by what ensued. Out of the blue, Woodfibre’s brass hastily called a Saturday emergency meeting to find a new route, after months and months of selling their proposed tanker traffic route as absolutely safe!

On a map, Gelotti (Woodfibre LNG President) showed two possible tanker routes. Route (A) (the current planned route) would go from the Woodfibre plant straight down the east sides of Gambier and Bowen and then into the Salish Sea. On Route (B) tankers could travel through the passage between Gambier Island and Howe Sound Pulp and Paper, pass the Langdale terminal, go by the north end of Keats up the east side of Keats (between Keats and Bowen) and then into the Salish Sea.

If the tankers travel on route (A), the tankers intersect with three ferry routes: Langdale-Horseshoe Bay, Horseshoe Bay-Bowen Island and Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay. On route (B), they intersect with the Langdale ferry and the Vancouver Island one.

Fortunately, we have the resources to deal with astonishing flip flops and we turned Woodfibre’s “back of the envelope” “Plan B” over to Commander Sweeny (Certificate of Service as Master Foreign Going, Qualified Master Home Trade, Commander, Royal Canadian Navy (Ret.), 3rd Generation BC Coaster and longtime owner of Mickey Island in West Howe Sound). He was nothing if not straight to the point:        

THIS IS ASTOUNDING, if not laughable! Anthony Gelotti plainly knows NOTHING about Howe Sound.

Take a look at Thornborough Channel down the West side of Gambier: getting into it around the north side of Anvil is tricky enough; thereafter many tight turns, and, south of Port Mellon, the channel is scarcely more than 1500 m wide on average,…ie tanker could never be more than max 800 m from shore, so 3500 m minimum safety circle would overlap just about everybody. And then, of course, East and south around Keats and into Barfleur heading Westwards (or Collingwood Southbound) to the Gulf, each of which narrow to 1500m, in one or more places ,so the Pasley Island group gets fully covered either way. Only a certified numbskull would suggest option B.

In fact, route B would not interfere with Departure Bay ferry traffic.

No Ferry schedule disruptions? Just a howling crowd of really, REALLY annoyed Langdale passengers!

A steering failure almost anywhere in Thornborough Channel could mean collision with granite cliff.

Gelotti’s dangerously simplistic pronouncements and the Fortis expansion plans terrify me.

Mr Muir, the public waits with bated breath for your reaction.

(As to Mair’s Axiom, I Q.E.D.)

Doctored interview

Now some questions to Mr. Muir, who claims he’s bound by professional codes of behaviour.

What about the alleged interview by Meena Mann of Dr. Michael Hightower, which I dealt with on March 15?

When Dr. Eoin Finn, a former KPMG partner and chemistry PhD, took the time to phone Dr. Hightower because the interview didn’t look quite right, it transpired that it wasn’t conducted by Meena Mann at all but by a male!

Were the questions changed when Ms. Mann did her fake interview? Were Dr. Hightower’s answers altered? This sort of shabby journalism is bound to raise doubts like this. What we do know is that contrary to Resource Works’ misrepresentation that Woodfibre’s LNG tanker traffic route (before Plan B, of course) was safe in Howe Sound, given the facts presented by Dr. Finn, Dr. Hightower came to exactly the opposite conclusion.

Clearly, Resource Works is guilty of grossly inappropriate journalistic behaviour. Even if Miss Mann asked precisely the same questions the real interviewer did, there are different inflections in the voice, no doubt, and her body language during the interview was, to say the least, descriptive of her feelings. What say you, Mr. Muir?

Judge misrepresented

Then, the most egregiously inappropriate journalistic behaviour of all – Resources Works altered and misstated the words of a Supreme Court judge to make themselves look good. Here’s what I said on March 15, to which I and Common Sense Canadian readers would appreciate an answer: ”

[quote]Resource Works, in reporting the judgment in the Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club v. Encana, quoting from page 47 of A Citizen’s Guide To LNG: Sea To Sky Country Edition – states:

“When a ruling came down in late 2014 it showed that the regulatory processes in place, and industry compliance with them, are sound and well managed.

In an overwhelming endorsement of current practices in water protection, Justice Fitzpatrick concluded that when it comes to the regulation of industries water usage, British Columbia is in good shape with a ‘justifiable transparent and intelligible framework for the regulation of short term water use.'”

This is bullshit! In fact, she did no such thing, as a reading of the judgment makes abundantly clear. She deliberately confined her decision to the interpretation of Section 8 only, stating plainly that she wasn’t going to deal with government or industry policy. The narrow issue was whether or not section 8 of the Water Act, which allows gas companies to get an endless number of water approvals back-to-back, was valid.

Only a practitioner of the black arts of Public Relations could read into Madam Justice Fitzpatrick’s judgment that she said “that the regulatory processes in place, and industry compliance with them, are sound and well managed”, or “when it comes to the regulation of industries water usage, British Columbia is in good shape”. She simply did not say this![/quote]

And Muir accuses us of “deliberately misleading statements”!

Tough questions face Resource Works

By the way, Mr. Muir, who is your public relations company?

Where do you get your funding, which must be considerable?

Do you get any funding from Woodfibre LNG?

Do you get any funding, directly or indirectly, from either senior government?

Do you have tax exemption status?

Having asked those questions, it’s only fair to tell you that the enormous and growing opposition to Woodfibre LNG in the Howe Sound community is funded by individuals only. In fact, we’re having a fundraiser on April 1 at Gleneagles Golf Club at 6 o’clock and we would love to see you and your open chequebook there.

Mr. Muir, you should know that we Howe Sounders and allies are resolved to win this fight and will use all the weapons at our disposal. You, your client company, and your captive governments can only keep the public under your heel for so long.

Harry Belafonte said it best: “Don’t turn your back on the masses, mon”.

Howe Sound needs the help of all British Columbians and it needs it now. The proposed Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish has got some very powerful allies.

Both governments support it. That means that there’s no point in citizens seeking help from their MP or MLA, who in fact are the vanguard of the enemy forces.

Industry group spews hot air in LNG PR

Industry is of course in favour and their stalking horse is a bunch called Resource Works which I exposed here last week as a group quite prepared to completely distort the words of a Supreme Court judge, to have phoney baloney TV interviews, and to twist adverse findings by a scientist and make them appear as if they actually favour tanker traffic in Howe Sound!

Resource Works has not refuted these charges, even though their Executive Director, one Stewart Muir, has since published an op-ed piece on the organization in the Vancouver Province.

Corporate media backs Woodfibre

We also have the Vancouver Sun and Province almost deliriously in favour of Woodfibre LNG, having just printed four consecutive articles in rapturous support including a blowjob by former premier Mike Harcourt who states that Woodfibre is “engaged in a rigorous and independent environmental review”. Can you believe that naiveté from a former premier! On any reasonable interpretation of the Peter Principle, Mikey achieved his “level of incompetence” when he was an alderman in Vancouver.

Gordon Wilson flip-flops on LNG

Then, of course, we have the “call boy” of BC politics, Gordon Wilson.

[quote]The most compelling reason to be concerned about relying on this golden goose (LNG) is the fact that the markets we are told will buy all we can supply may not materialize as we think, and even if they do, the price they are prepared to pay for our product may be well below what is anticipated.[/quote]

That was Gordon Wilson the fiscal skeptic talking but there is more. Here’s what Wilson the environmentalist had to say:

[quote]Expanded LNG production also comes with a significant environmental cost.

The impact of an expanded hydrocarbon economy will certainly speed up global warming and cause us to build a dependency on a revenue stream that originates form processes that are poisoning our atmosphere.[/quote]

Then, shortly after his newfound heroine won the May 13, 2013 election, Wilson, stout opponent of LNG, received his pay-off through a job with the government at $12,500 per month to support LNG!

This contract has since been renewed and continues.

‘Jewel of Lower Mainland’ on the mend

When I say Howe Sound needs all of our help, I am talking about the entire province of British Columbia.

Howe Sound is the jewel of the Lower Mainland and it belongs to all British Columbians. It is our most southerly fjord and is breathtakingly beautiful. It has recovered from the horrible abuse we have heaped on it with the pulp mills and, of course, the old Britannia mine. The salmon runs are returning; the herring are back; the whales are back; the flora on the ocean bed has returned. We have recently discovered that Halkett Bay contains the rare and very fragile “Glass Sponge”.

It is indeed a glorious rebirth we are witnessing and we are about to put it all at severe risk.

I’m only going to speak of one of those risks today, which is in no way intended to minimize the others. Let me just talk about LNG tanker traffic.

LNG tanker safety issues

Industry and their handmaidens, the two senior governments, deny that there can ever be a problem with tankers which, of course, is nonsense and defies the simple laws of probability by which we are all governed. Just as the flipped coin must turn up heads sometime, there will be an accident with the odds increasing with the traffic. The damage will be horrific.

There are standards that have been devised by scientists who have studied this matter.

Because I want to give every benefit of the doubt to the LNG industry, let’s deal with the standard set by Dr. Mike Hightower, a world-renowned expert on LNG tanker operations at Sandia International Laboratories. It is considered by most environmentalists as far too “conservative”. Some world-recognized LNG hazard experts, such as Dr. Jerry Havens (University of Arkansas; former Coast Guard LNG vapour hazard researcher), indicate that three miles or more is a more realistic Hazard Zone distance.

Here are the dimensions of Howe Sound, including the aforementioned recommendations of Dr. Hightower, from an expert on the subject, Commander Roger Sweeny, Certificate of Service as Master Foreign Going, Qualified Master Home Trade, Commander, Royal Canadian Navy (Ret.), 3rd Generation BC Coaster and longtime owner of Mickey Island in West Howe Sound:

[quote]NARROW PASSAGES

The upper reaches of Howe Sound are about 2700 m wide. The outbound channel narrows to 1600m east of Anvil Island. Thereafter, ships proceeding down Queen Charlotte Channel east of Bowen Island are restricted between Bowen and Bowyer Island (2400m), Bowen and West Vancouver (2050m), and at Passage Island (2450m), or, if down Collingwood Channel west of Bowen, between Bowen and Gambier Island (1900m), Keats Island(2100m), Ragged Island (1500m), Mickey Island(1600m), and Worlcombe Island (1700m).

Dr Hightower, a world renowned expert on LNG tanker operations at Sandia International Laboratories, has defined for the US Department of Energy three hazard zones of 500m, 1600m (1 mile) and 3500m surrounding LNG tankers. The largest zone represents the minimum safe separation between tanker and people. Other LNG hazard experts have indicated that 4800m (3miles) or more is a more realistic hazard separation distance. In this context it is worth remembering that the heat stored in a 50,000 tonne cargo of LNG is equivalent to several dozen Hiroshima bombs.

Clearly the minimum 3500m civilian hazard zone extends at least 2 km beyond each side of all these restricted passages.   Virtually the entire Sea to Sky highway from Britannia to Lighthouse Park, Anvil, southeast Gambier, Bowyer, eastern Keats, Bowen, and all islands of the Pasley group fall within the zone. Furthermore, from Britannia to Porteau Cove, Bowyer, White Cliff, both coasts of Bowen and eastern Pasley group are also within the much more dangerous 1600m zone.

Howe Sound is no place for LNG tankers![/quote]

It is against this evidence, bearing in mind that it is “conservative”, that the two senior governments are prepared to proceed and have so indicated on every possible occasion. The public be damned.

What is sickeningly fascinating is that neither governments nor Resource Works make any effort to refute this evidence. In fact, they don’t deal with it. And that is of course a time-honoured political trick. Never admit that you’re wrong, never deal with the argument, simply attack on another front.

MLA takes money from Woodfibre

I have watched with interest and care the two politicians representing my constituency, West Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, and Sea to Sky Country.

Both of them have avoided, like the plague, getting public input in any meaningful way. John Weston has gone so far as to assault the West Vancouver Council for its official disapproval of the Woodfibre LNG plant.

All one need know about Jordan Sturdy, the Liberal MLA, is that his fundraiser was at the exclusive Capilano Golf Club of all places and was sponsored by Woodfibre LNG!

Our governmental system requires elected lickspittles and we have a couple of dandies!

The people of this constituency are politically abandoned. Clearly both the provincial Liberals and the federal Tories are prepared to write off the constituency which, when you think about it, really puts the onus on the rest of the province.

Time to ratchet up pressure

The only way political pressure can be brought to bear on the BC Premier and the Prime Minister, both of whom are in the pockets of industry, is to have that pressure applied in constituencies all over the province.

I have no doubt that the residents of our constituency will go as far as civil disobedience and that this will be necessary sooner or later. I believe that the good people of Burnaby in their fight against Kinder Morgan have inspired a lot of people in this area and that the fear of standing up to authority has all but disappeared.

The fact remains, however, that the LNG issue is province-wide. It’s rather reminds me of Churchill’s statement “everyone feeds the crocodile in the hopes that the crocodile will eat him last”.

The message from this is clear – British Columbians cannot afford to sit back and let others do all the fighting for an issue that belongs to all of us.

It’s an axiom of debate that if you don’t like the argument you’re in, find one that you’re more comfortable with. Barristers use this technique before juries all the time and that’s precisely the technique that Resource Works, a well-heeled pro-LNG group, is using to bamboozle the public of British Columbia.

Team LNG

The glossy 58-page document they use is called A Citizen’s Guide To LNG: Sea To Sky Country Edition.

Knowing many of the supporters personally, and most of them by reputation, I don’t believe any of them actually wrote this rubbish – it has all the earmarks of a large PR firm.

This is what they say about themselves:

[quote]Resource Works recognizes the demand of British Columbians for economic growth and environmental sustainability, and aims to break the ice in the controversial resource debate. In 2014, Resource Works organized community conversations in 8 municipalities in the Lower Mainland, involving more than 120 participants consist of local government, businesses, NGOs and citizens. Moderate, rational discussions are a necessary first-step towards BC’s sustainable future. (Emphasis mine)[/quote]

Here are some of the players:

Stewart Muir, the Executive Director and a former big wig with the Vancouver Sun, “is married to Athana Mentzelopoulos, deputy minister of jobs, tourism and skills training,” according to the Tyee’s Donald Gutstein, who wrote about Resource Works upon their launch last summer. “Before that, [Mentzelopoulos] was in charge of Premier Christy Clark’s ‘priority’ files,” says Gutstein. “She’s so close to Clark she was bridesmaid at Clark’s wedding.”

Geoff Plant was attorney general under Gordon Campbell and in 2012 was tapped by Clark to be the province’s chief legal strategist for the Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel proceedings.

Board chair Doug Horswill was BC’s deputy minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources until moving to BC mining giant Teck Resources, where he now serves as senior VP.

Advisory Council Chair Lyn Anglin is the former president and CEO of Geoscience BC, a provincially-funded organization tasked with attracting mining, oil and gas investment to the province.

Greg D’Avignon, according to the Resource Works website, “is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of British Columbia, a 250-member organization which represents the provinces leading businesses in every sector of the provincial economy and more than one-quarter of all jobs in the province. Established in 1966, the Business Council is the foremost policy and business advocacy organization in the province.”

Philippa P. Wilshaw “is an Audit Partner in KPMG’s Greater Vancouver Area (GVA) Energy and Natural Resources and Industrial Markets practice. She has 20 years of experience with KPMG and started her career with KPMG UK in 1993. She joined the Toronto office in 2003 and moved to Vancouver in 2005.”

As to who is funding the research, Resource Works did volunteer the information that seed funding came from the B.C. Business Council, but has not disclosed other sources of funding.

What about fracking?

It’s interesting that A Citizen’s Guide To LNG: Sea To Sky Country Edition doesn’t touch the issue of “fracking” until page 46 and then only in two brief paragraphs. It mentions that there is a US documentary on the subject but says that they, Resource Works, don’t think there’s any evidence of problems with “fracking” in BC. If that doesn’t convince you, I ask you, what will?

It’s “fracking” – which would supply the majority of gas for LNG – however, that causes the atmospheric damage,  damage to our water, and health risks to the population. Moreover, as Andrew Nikiforuk has reported to us, the weakening of the ground around the fracking area has caused serious earthquake problems in Holland. Increased seismic activity has been connected to fracking in BC and throughout the US as well. Resource Works does admit that there could be earthquake problems but that they have always been very minor. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

Because Woodfibre says so

Let’s look at the specific claims made on behalf of the proposed Woodfibre LNG plant, near Squamish. What’s fascinating about these few pages is that the information is constantly based upon what Woodfibre LNG has told them! Their word is accepted on every major issue uncritically. Woodfibre LNG is wonderful because Woodfibre LNG tells us so! There is a paucity of scientific evidence or indeed anything from people who might have another point of view.

There’s no mention that Sukanto Tanoto, the owner of Woodfibre’s holding company, a convicted big-time tax evader with a shameful environmental record.

Dangerous cargo

Let’s look at transportation of LNG by tanker through Howe Sound. I do that not just because it’s of enormous concern to everybody who lives along the proposed route, but because Resource Works dwells upon the issue. They concede that if tankers go too close to the shore, there could be a problem. However, they assure us there is no problem because they spoke to Dr. Mike Hightower, of Sandia Laboratories in New Mexico, a world acknowledged expert on the subject, who’s developed a protocol accepted by US authorities for the distances ships must maintain between themselves and the shore.

Resource Works has produced a number of videos which they make available to the public in order to sell the benefits of LNG. In all of them the interviewer is an attractive young lady named Meena Mann. It is in one of them, featured on the Vancouver Province website, where Dr. Hightower appears to talk to Ms. Mann about LNG and tankers and you would likely conclude that there is very little danger, if any, posed by LNG tankers in Howe Sound.

Here is what Sandia has reported, based upon Dr Hightower’s work:

[quote]Sandia National Laboratories defines for the US Department of Energy three Hazard Zones (also called “Zones of Concern”) surrounding LNG carriers. The largest Zone is 2.2 miles/3,500 meters around the vessel, indicating that LNG ports and tankers must be located at least that distance from civilians. Some world-recognized LNG hazard experts, such as Dr. Jerry Havens (University of Arkansas; former Coast Guard LNG vapor hazard researcher), indicate that three miles or more is a more realistic Hazard Zone distance.[/quote]

What the video does not tell you is that Dr. Hightower had not addressed his attention to Howe Sound, and when local resident Dr. Eoin Finn did so, Dr. Hightower concurred that Bowen Island and parts of West Vancouver are very much at risk – within the 1-mile radius – as are parts of the Sea-to-Sky Highway and Lions Bay/Bowyer Island. In other words, If one accepts Dr. Hightower’s formula, as Resource Works clearly does, there is no way any LNG tankers would be permitted to proceed from Squamish to the ocean.

Interview doctored?

Now the plot thickens.

Dr. Eoin Finn, a  former KPMG partner and chemistry PhD, took the time to phone Dr. Hightower because the interview didn’t look quite right. Well, it wasn’t right because it wasn’t conducted by Meena Mann at all but by a male!

Dr. Hightower was not prepared to say that he had been misrepresented other than the fact that it was a man who interviewed him but he was dubious about Resource Works’ characterization of his “burn back to the source” description. The vapour cloud is much more complex than a simple burn-back, and people exposed to the flame would stand a high likelihood of being severely burned by the high temperatures of the flame. Indoors, not so much, but he expected that the flame would suck up much of the oxygen in the air, so asphyxiation would be a serious problem in the area of the vapour cloud.

Was the question changed when Ms. Mann did her fake interview? Was Dr. Hightower’s answer altered? I don’t know but this sort of shabby deception is bound to raise doubts like this. What we do know is that far from supporting Resource Works’ assertion that LNG tanker traffic is safe in Howe Sound, given the facts, Dr. Hightower comes to exactly the opposite conclusion.

Resource Works is guilty of a hugely deceptive practice. Even if Miss Mann asked precisely the same questions the real interviewer did, there are different inflections in the voice no doubt and her body language during the interview was, to say the least, descriptive of her feelings. If this is an example of the integrity of Resource Works, they are not entitled to any credibility whatsoever.

Watering down the truth

In fact it is much worse than this. Resource Works has simply not told the truth and they ought to publicly apologize.  Here’s the evidence:

A case was brought in 2013 against Encana and the province by the Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club. The issue was whether or not section 8 of the Water Act, which allows back-to-back short-term permits, was valid. That was the sole issue; the judge made it clear that she wasn’t deciding on the government’s overall water policy, or the ” fracking” question, but whether back-to-back short term water leases under The Water Act were valid – bear that in mind.

Resource Works, in reporting this – and I quote, from page 47 of A Citizen’s Guide To LNG: Sea To Sky Country Edition – states:

[quote]When a ruling came down in late 2014 it showed that the regulatory processes in place, and industry compliance with them, are sound and well managed.

In an overwhelming endorsement of current practices in water protection, justice Fitzpatrick concluded that when it comes to the regulation of industries water usage, British Columbia is in good shape with a “justifiable transparent and intelligible framework for the regulation of short term water use.”[/quote]

In fact, she did no such thing as a reading of the judgment makes abundantly clear. She confined her decision to the interpretation of Section 8 only. The issue was whether or not section 8 of the Water Act, which allows gas companies to get an endless number of water approvals back-to-back, was lawful.

Only a practitioner of the black arts of Public Relations could read into Madam Justice Fitzpatrick’s judgment that she said “that the regulatory processes in place, and industry compliance with them, are sound and well managed”, or “when it comes to the regulation of industries water usage, British Columbia is in good shape.'”

She simply did not say this!

The fact that the petitioners, the Wilderness Committee and the Sierra Club, had made an appropriate application was reflected in the fact that no costs were awarded against them, even though they had lost the case.

Surely, one’s entitled to conclude that this sort of disassembling, distortion, and outright misrepresentation colours all of the presentations of this outfit.

Who’s writing this stuff?

Resource Works would have us believe that they are an independent group, concerned only with the public weal, and really quite independent on the issue of LNG, only wanting to enhance reasonable debate.

Quite obviously this is utter nonsense. They are obviously flacks for the LNG industry and pretty obviously for the Christy Clark government as well.

Are they paid flacks? I don’t know, which is why it would be most interesting if they disclosed how they are funded – how much and by whom? This operation – the dozens of slick videos, the reports, the website – could not be done cheaply. Where did the money come from? Are there public funds involved?

The question for those involved, who include a former premier and two former attorneys-general of the province, is this: your integrity is at stake here – do you really want your reputations used to back up these statements?

Postscript: A Citizen’s Guide To LNG: Sea To Sky Country Edition, a booklet of 58 pages, was written, so it states, by the Executive Director, Stewart Muir and Barinder Rasode who is – get this for delicious irony – “Director of Social Responsibility for Resource Works” – don’t you love it?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper jumped on the BC LNG ship this week with the announcement of federal support for the embattled industry during a speech in Surrey, BC.

A PMO press release trumpeting the commitment stated:

[quote]Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced the Government’s intent to support the creation of new and well-paying jobs in the emerging liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.[/quote]

Give ’em what they want

The move follows BC Premier Christy Clark’s pattern of caving to the demands of foreign energy titans like Malaysia’s Petronas – slashing local taxes to counteract the failing economics of the Asian LNG market. Petronas CEO Shamsul Abbas has been vocal in demanding reductions in BC’s planned export tax regime, as well as more favourable federal capital cost allowances. With this week’s announcement from the Prime Minister, he has received essentially everything he asked for – including the fast-tracked approval of environmental permits for its controversial gas plant in the midst of the Skeena River estuary.

“In order to ensure that Canadian natural gas can reach new and growing international markets, and make it accessible for new domestic uses, the Government intends to establish a capital cost allowance rate of 30 per cent for equipment used in natural gas liquefaction and 10 per cent for buildings at a facility that liquefies natural gas,” the PMO’s statement noted.  “This tax relief will be available for capital assets acquired after February 19, 2015, and before 2025.”

The Conservative Government is also helping the LNG industry with the proposed weakening of environmental regulations for fossil fuel ports in its latest Omnibus bill.

What jobs?

Harper touted the job benefits from supporting the industry, yet many of the potential local jobs have already been promised to China, India and Malaysia through government agreements to import cheaper foreign temporary workers.

Meanwhile, even the enormous tax benefits the industry has already been granted can’t make up for the fact that Asian LNG prices have plummeted a record 61.7% over the past year – to a point well below the profitability line for BC exports. No wonder companies like Petronas, Chevron, BG Group, Apache, EnCana and EOG have already stalled on their final investment decisions or altogether abandoned ship on the fledgling industry.

It is a mark of sheer government incompetence – or utter neglect for the public benefit – to give an industry everything it asks for and still get nothing in return for the citizens of BC and Canada.