A proposed US$7.3bn LNG project in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has received approval to enter environmental review, the Vancouver Sun reports.
The Ksi Lisims scheme is to be developed by a team led by the Nisga’a, a First Nations people who live near the village of Gingolx about 500km north of Vancouver.
They will do this with Houston-based gas company Western LNG and a consortium of Canadian gas producers known as Rockies LNG.
When complete, it aims to export low-carbon LNG to Asia.
The decision to progress the export facility was announced by the BC Environmental Assessment Office last week.
The decision begins a process, likely to last at least 18 months, to set out how the review will take place and the federal government’s role in it.
Eva Clayton, president of the Nisga’a Nation, commented: “I am pleased to see premier David Eby’s remarks about the new LNG framework recognising what we have long known: that economic reconciliation and net-zero LNG development go hand in hand.”
The low-carbon claim for the facility is based on its use of hydroelectric energy. But environmental critics, including some among the First Nations, note the project will also increase emissions owing to increased natural gas extraction in north-east BC.
BC has set itself a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by the end of the decade compared with levels in 2007. However, so far, emissions have been reduced by only 1%.
