Editor:
Jay Ritchlin is partly correct on the need for adjustments to B.C.’s dated natural gas royalty regime but he lets cancel ideology get in the way when advocating winding down of natural gas drilling altogether.
Ask most people if they support gas fracking and you could expect a mixed response. Then ask them if they knew U.S. power sector carbon emissions were down 19 per cent in the last 20 years (according to the U.S. Energy Information Association, EIA), this mostly because of fracked natural gas replacing coal fire power generation. Most would be surprised.
Mr. Ritchlin also claims to seek reconciliation with Indigenous nations. My question would be which Indigenous nations – the 20 groups along the Coastal Gaslink pipeline route that have signed on to support the project? One would presume the pipeline must be full of natural gas for them to benefit.
The real question that should be asked is why do groups like the David Suzuki Foundation seek to impose higher energy bills on the majority of Western Canadians that rely on natural gas as a reliable heat source, especially when the cost of everything is rising rapidly? Why too do they pretend B.C. operates in a bubble, that China’s coal fired power doesn’t matter, the goal being reduce our emissions regardless of tangible global benefit?
Research by Rhodium Group says China emits more greenhouse gas than the entire developed world combined. Natural gas imports are an important near-term solution to this bigger problem. B.C. can lead by supplying what’s needed for real progress.
Darryl Brin, Sechelt
