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www.northernsentinel.com
Volume 57 No. 35
Unanswered questions surround refinery Cameron Orr Haisla Chief Councillor Ellis Ross isn’t quite ready to express an opinion on whether David Black’s proposal for an oil refinery is a good idea — the Haisla council has a policy of waiting for official government referrals on proposals before forming opinions — but he does say the newspaper mogul has a “long way to go.” Ross said putting a concept on paper is one thing but actually implementing such a proposal will take years and years of work. And he noted that Black’s announcement didn’t really say a lot beyond the fact he would apply for an environmental permit. “That happens more often than most people know about,” said Ross, adding that permit applications are “a dime a dozen.” Black told media in his announcement on Aug. 17 that he hasn’t yet had “serious” discussions with First Nations governments. Ross said that he’s had no actual face-to-face meeting with him and communication has only been through the phone. Ross said there are many unanswered questions around this proposal, from the opinion of other First Nations, to whether a permit for a refinery could be blended with Enbridge’s own application. But speaking as a British Columbian, Ross said that it really comes down to a need for a national strategy. “What it boils down to is just that we don’t have an energy plan for Canada,” he said. And aside from the debate on the refinery itself, Ross did praise Black for at least making this a topic of conversation. “Regardless of cost, regardless of obstacles, regardless of the positive and negative comments, he actually was the one that made it in official in saying ‘we should be talking about this.’,” he said. “I hope it’s a wake up call to British Columbia and Canada...I do commend him for actually having the courage to bring it up.” As reported last week, Black Press owner David Black announced his plans to submit an application for an environmental permit for a proposed oil refinery to be located between Kitimat and Terrace. The plan calls for the processing of all the output of the proposed Northern Gateway Pipelines project by Enbridge - about 550,000 barrels a day.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
1.34 INCLUDES TAX
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A group of about a dozen youth listen intently as they’re read a book, one of the wrap-up events at the library last week capping off the summer reading club.
BC LNG Co-op aims for 2014 start BC LNG Export Co-operative, the partnership between the Haisla and LNG Partners LLC, will be sending out bids for its production and output possibly as early as this week, while they look for a final go-ahead before Christmas this year. That’s the word from Tom Tatham, managing director for BC LNG. Earlier this year BC LNG received a 20 year export licence for liquefied natural gas from the National Energy Board. The Sentinel contacted BC LNG after it received word that new changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act on July 6 would mean certain projects in the country would no longer require an environmental assessment. Douglas Channel Gas Services, one of the arms of the co-op, was among those affected. Tatham said that this change of policy won’t necessarily speed up development of the LNG facility as they were
We’ve told them either you do that or we’re likely to supply our own power.” on track with their schedule already, and said that there’s no cause for concern that they won’t get an assessment because the construcion and operation is fairly smallscale anyway, especially compared to the larger proposals in line for this area. “Our process was never as involved as the bigger projects,” said Tatham. He did say they would still work with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans regarding potential impacts on the marine environments. Meanwhile the company is moving ahead in issuing requests for nominations this week, which will allow companies to bid on supplying the gas and purchasing it for the project’s Train 1. The facility is
looking to an initial 700,000 tonnes per year output. As long as everything falls into place as it’s expected he said that construction should start before the end of this year with an operation date sometime at the end of 2014. Engineering-wise, BC LNG has some slight alterations to make to its Front End Engineering and Design plan (FEED), to reflect possible changes to its power supply. Tatham said they are considering selfgeneration all their electricty after BC Hydro announced changes to its power rates. Tatham said BC Hydro introduced new rates which meant they wouldn’t receive the usual industrial rate for power. “We’ve told them either you do that or we’re likely to supply our own power,” he said. He said they’ll decide on their power structure once they firm up their financing.”
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Keeping the Kitimat River accessible...Page 3