The federal government celebrated B.C.’s newly approved Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility this week, touting Canada’s environmental standards. But the project will be heavily reliant on natural gas in its initial stage, according to the approval released Monday.
This will result in “significant adverse effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” according to the B.C. government. It would also be at odds with the provincial government’s stated plans for new LNG facilities to be net zero by 2030.
Nevertheless, the project is lauded by the federal government as “responsible resource development” subject to “some of the most environmentally rigorous standards in the world,” according to a Sept. 15 statement posted to social media by Energy Minister Tim Hodgson.
Eventually, the idea is the massive liquefaction and export project, which will ship supercooled methane to countries in Asia starting around 2028, will be powered by hydroelectricity. But the project approval, which was granted on Sept. 15, permits the LNG plant to start operations before hydroelectric power is in place, noting: “no significant adverse effects are expected from Ksi Lisims LNG, with the exception of significant adverse effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of natural gas-fired power barges used to electrify the project prior to connection to the BC Hydro electrical grid.”
Natural gas — which is extracted in B.C. primarily through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — is mostly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for around 30 per cent of the current rise in global temperatures, according to the International Energy Agency. That spike in temperatures is causing increasing climate disasters worldwide, including uncontrollable wildfires, devastating floods and protracted droughts. These extreme events, in turn, are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and trillions of dollars in damage to cities and infrastructure.
The Ksi Lisims LNG plant — a project co-developed by the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government — will be built in northern B.C. on an island near the mouth of the Nass River, known as Ḵ’alii Aksim Lisims to the Nisg̱a’a, close to the Alaska border. Access to the nearest village, Ging̱olx, is via a cracked and rutted winding road subject to extreme weather conditions. It is unclear how or when a hydro transmission line capable of carrying enough high-voltage electricity to meet the needs of the energy-intensive liquefaction operation will be built. Western LNG, one of the Nisg̱a’a government’s industry partners, referred The Narwhal to publicly available documents about proposed transmission lines, which would not be completed until 2032 at the earliest.
The 800-kilometre Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline will transport fracked gas from B.C.’s northeast to the Ksi Lisims liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the Pacific coast near the Alaska border. Map: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal
“Ksi Lisims LNG represents a transformational opportunity for all participating B.C. nations, and it will be developed in line with our nation’s high environmental standards,” Eva Clayton, Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government president, said in a statement emailed to The Narwhal.
While announcing the Ksi Lisims LNG approval, B.C. Premier David Eby said the project will help “diversify our economy and reduce reliance on the U.S.” Both Eby and Hodgson celebrated the involvement of the Nisg̱a’a nation in the export project and associated Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline. The Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government has a stake in both projects, but documents filed with the B.C. government show the primary owner and operator of Ksi Lisims is Texas-based Western LNG. Employees of Western LNG, which has offices in Houston and Vancouver, met with senior provincial government officials 69 times since the beginning of 2024, according to B.C. lobbying records. Both Ksi Lisims and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline are backed by Blackstone Inc., a U.S. investment company.
“When the premier says that LNG projects make us all better off, he’s either not being honest or he’s delusional,” Shannon McPhail, a director with Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, said in an emailed statement to The Narwhal. “This LNG expansion will benefit American corporations but it is going to cost everyday people through higher domestic energy costs, healthcare costs, local infrastructure costs and loss of revenue for the economies and businesses in this region that are dependent on an intact ecosystem.”
Natural gas allowed in ‘circumstances beyond the control of the proponent’: new rules
Earlier this year, B.C. sent its first shipments of LNG overseas from the LNG Canada liquefaction and export facility in Kitimat. Powered by burning some of the gas it receives from the Coastal GasLink pipeline, LNG Canada’s first phase can produce up to 14 million tonnes of the liquefied gas annually. Ksi Lisims LNG will be able to ship 12 million tonnes.
In March 2023, immediately after approving a smaller gas liquefaction and export project, Cedar LNG, B.C. Premier David Eby announced new regulations for the province’s oil and gas sector, including requiring new LNG facilities to make a “credible plan” to reach net-zero emissions by 2030. Practically, the new rule means any future LNG projects would have to be powered by electricity, rather than running on natural gas as LNG Canada primarily does.
LNG Canada began shipments earlier this year. The liquefaction and export facility is powering its operations by burning gas. Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal
Ksi Lisims proposed “using renewable hydropower from the B.C. grid” to power its operations — about 600 megawatts (MW), according to internal government documents obtained by The Narwhal in February. If electrified, the second phase of the LNG Canada project (which would see it double its output of LNG to around 28 million tonnes per year) would need an additional 585 megawatts, the documents show. Together, the two LNG facilities could soak up enough electricity to power more than 500,000 average homes, based on calculations from the B.C. government.
But delivering that much power to the remote Ksi Lisims LNG project site will not be a quick or easy endeavour. Earlier this year, the B.C. government announced plans to fast-track the North Coast transmission line, a 450-kilometre high-voltage line to serve industrial customers in northwest B.C., including mining and LNG projects.
But the North Coast transmission line may not be complete by 2030. That would leave Ksi Lisims in a difficult situation, out of compliance with provincial regulations. Dix issued “a clarification” of the 2023 net-zero policy in March, advising the environmental assessment agency that new LNG facilities need to be ready to become net zero by 2030 but can use natural gas if clean electricity is not available “due to circumstances beyond the control of the proponent.”
‘Another LNG project means more pollution’ either way: climate advocate
Even if B.C. is able to provide Ksi Lisims LNG with hydroelectric power for the energy-intensive liquefaction process, that doesn’t mean the project will not contribute to global climate change and domestic emissions. Upstream emissions, produced during the extraction process and in transport via the PRGT pipeline, as well as regasification and combustion emissions are all part of the bigger picture of LNG exported from B.C.
“Approving another LNG project means more pollution, higher climate risks and greater harm to our health,” Thomas Green, senior climate policy advisor with the David Suzuki Foundation, said in a statement. “We don’t need more fossil fuel infrastructure when clean energy and electric technologies can power our lives, cut costs and create better jobs here in B.C.”
The approval of Ksi Lisims follows a June decision by the B.C. government to secure the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline’s approval indefinitely. The 800-kilometre pipeline project has faced opposition since it was first proposed in 2014 and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members along the route and on the coast have been organizing resistance as construction gets underway.
As The Narwhal previously reported, the Ksi Lisims LNG project did not receive consent from all of the First Nations it consulted. Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs and the Haida Nation expressly told the province they did not consent. Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, a Wet’suwet’en land defender who fought for years against another natural gas pipeline, Coastal GasLink, which feeds gas to LNG Canada, said the new approval sets the stage for conflict.
“Forcing projects through unceded Indigenous lands without free, prior and informed consent has proven to cost industry and government billions of extra dollars,” she said in an emailed statement. “Due to the blatant disregard for traditional governance systems, private industry, like Coastal Gaslink and the PRGT pipeline, have and will be forced to use militarized police and private security forces to complete their projects.”
— With files from Shannon Waters
