Meanwhile, in Victoria…

It’s all Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) all the time in this legislative session, with new environmental regulations coming out yesterday (Bill 2), and the long-awaited LNG tax plan due out today.

My friend Sacha Peter took a look at Bill 2 and raises some pretty big red flags. Here’s Sacha:

• They claim this is for LNG, but the way I read the legislation, they can prescribe whatever they want to be under this banner. The government can functionally order any industry to go through severe bureaucratic loops to ensure "compliance" with GHG emissions.
• Of course, you can buy offsets or purchase units in some government-approved-but-not-government "technology fund" (can anybody say a reincarnation of the Pacific Carbon Trust?). 
• You have to love Section 22 - in the name of GHG emissions checking, the government can swoop in and look at whatever they want to. Fantastic.
• Any serious industry wanting to invest in BC is asking to stick their neck inside a noose!  Mix this in with the uncertainty regarding aboriginal title, and the only industry that's going to be left in BC in a decade is building cottage homes for offshore investors.

Always the bearer of good news, that Sacha. We’ll be digging into Bill 2 further to see if we can get clarification on these issues. Is it just for LNG? Or is every industry going to suffer through this – and have they been consulted in the creation of this legislation? Why are we going back to discredited models like the Pacific Carbon Trust? And why is a law on greenhouse gas emissions allowing government to look at any part of a business it chooses?