Jeremy Valeriote, an environmental engineer and the BC Green Party candidate for West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, has expressed concerns over the Woodfibre LNG plant and its potential effects on human health and the environment.
Valeriote welcomed the upcoming independent scientific research by the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), and Vancouver Coastal Health, focusing on the health outcomes of fossil gas flaring.
“We know that flaring is not harmless; there is already evidence that emissions from flaring are directly connected to premature births, asthma and other respiratory problems, heart disease and even mortality,” he said.
“Any way you slice this, it’s a misguided project: the vast subsidies BC taxpayers are handing over for a relatively small number of jobs; the immediate environmental threat to one of the fastest-growing communities in BC; the incomplete data that proponents have presented to secure their environmental permits; and the outrageous amounts of planet-heating greenhouse gas – mostly methane – that will be emitted in the fracking, transportation, liquefaction, shipping, and eventual combustion of this fossil gas in Asia.”
Valeriote echoed BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau’s criticism of the BC NDP’s budget reliance on fossil fuel revenue, emphasizing the need for leadership in building a clean energy economy and investing in future-proof jobs. He criticized the government’s support for LNG projects as contradictory to their purported efforts to combat climate change, highlighting BC’s substantial fossil fuel subsidies compared to other provinces.
“Continuing to expand fossil fuel infrastructure that puts human health at risk and exacerbates the climate crisis is the opposite of the leadership we need right now. I strongly believe that we owe it to our children and grandchildren to meet this generational challenge of climate change based on scientific evidence. We can certainly do better than hitching our wagon to the export of fossil fuels on inherently volatile international markets, driving up prices for domestic customers and further aggravating an affordability crisis,” he said.
