This $3B LNG project in B.C. won’t get an environmental assessment
The BC Energy Regulator, largely funded by the oil and gas industry, will be in charge of permits and authorization for the North Coast transmission line — which will power liquefied natural gas, mining and other industries
The B.C. government is putting the BC Energy Regulator in charge of issuing permits for a $3-billion transmission line to power liquefied natural gas (LNG), mining and other projects.
Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal
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A new $3-billion transmission line to power B.C.’s liquefied natural gas (LNG), mining and other industries appears to have dodged an environmental assessment.
On Tuesday, Premier David Eby announced his government will introduce legislation to allow the BC Energy Regulator to issue permits and authorizations for the North Coast transmission line, which will run from Prince George to Terrace.
An environmental assessment is an independent, rigorous and transparent process — conducted by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office — that details a project’s impacts on nearby land, water and wildlife habitat and proposes mitigations where possible.
Eby announced the planned change at the Natural Resources Forum in Prince George on Tuesday evening. He told the crowd the BC Energy Regulator — funded largely by oil and gas industry fees and levies — will be “the only regulator for permits necessary to support the North Coast transmission line and all major transmission lines in the province of British Columbia.”
“The BC Energy Regulator has a history of showing success at getting projects moving quickly, working in partnership with industry and with First Nations, and this will ensure that we build the line sooner,” Eby said. He added that the decision would also affect “other major transmission lines in the province” — which could eventually include a transmission line to the Ksi Lisims LNG project in northwest B.C. near the Alaska border, currently undergoing an environmental assessment.
According to a BC Hydro presentation, the 450-kilometre North Coast transmission line would affect as many as 101 private properties, including agricultural land. It would cut through traplines and woodlots, fall within 200 metres of archeological sites, overlap with designated winter habitat for moose and cross waterways that include habitat for at-risk white sturgeon.
The high-voltage North Coast transmission line would run from Prince George to Terrace. According to BC Hydro, it would impact farmland, waterways, at-risk species and up to 101 private property owners. Map: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal
Electricity for the high voltage line would come in part from the publicly funded $16-billion Site C dam project nearing completion on B.C.’s Peace River.
The Narwhal asked the B.C. Energy Ministry to confirm the North Coast transmission line will avoid an environmental assessment under the planned changes, but did not receive a response.
According to briefing documents The Narwhal obtained under freedom of information legislation, BC Hydro planned to advance the transmission line in two phases: from Prince George to Glenannan and from Glenannan to Terrace. The public utility suggested the first component of the line “may not” have triggered an environmental assessment, while the second was “likely” to trigger an assessment, the documents stated.
Energy Minister Adrian Dix said in a press release this week that getting the transmission line built quickly is crucial to allow the province to cash in on a range of industrial projects planned in northwest B.C.
“If the North Coast transmission line is not built, and built quickly, major critical minerals, future port expansions, and LNG, hydrogen and other important resource projects may not proceed,” Dix said. “We need to move this vital project forward to realize B.C.’s resource-development potential and create jobs and investment opportunities, while achieving provincial climate targets.”
But Sven Biggs, oil and gas campaign director at Stand.earth, said in a separate press release that British Columbians shouldn’t have to pay for the power infrastructure that resource extraction industries, like the LNG sector, need.
“The only logical reason these transmission lines are being built is to supply power to hungry LNG terminals, which begs the question — who is picking up the multibillion dollar bill for this project?” Biggs asked. “Unfortunately, the answer is likely regular residential rate payers because the cost of this new infrastructure is going to be passed on to them in the form of higher electricity bills.”
A briefing note prepared for Dix’s predecessor, Josie Osborne, outlined a proposal to lobby the federal government to provide $1.5 billion in funding for the transmission line project.
Planned handover to BCER raises concerns about transparency and accountability
The government’s plan to give the regulator sole oversight of the North Coast transmission line also raises alarms for Andhra Azevedo, a lawyer with the environmental law charity Ecojustice.
“We strongly believe that any legislative amendments in B.C. to put permitting into the hands of the BC Energy Regulator should require that the [regulator] provide robust opportunities for public input and involvement, as well as transparency and accountability, when issuing permits,” Azevedo said in a statement to The Narwhal.
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The regulator’s current processes offer few opportunities for meaningful public participation and transparency, she added. For example, although the assessment office regularly publishes inspection reports on its website, the BC Energy Regulator’s reports are not publicly available.
Proponents of natural gas call it a cleaner fuel — it’s largely made up of methane, which doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, but is 80 times more powerful for its short-term warming impact.
Azevedo also said while increasing access to clean power in B.C. is crucial to addressing climate change, the North Coast transmission line will primarily power LNG facilities, rather than homes.
“B.C.’s electricity is in short supply and high demand, so it is troubling that the province is prioritizing providing this electricity to new LNG facilities seeking to profit from the export of fossil fuels instead of ensuring that this electricity is available to power B.C. households and decarbonize other sectors of our economy,” she said.
The LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., will begin shipping LNG overseas this year. Photo: Marty Clemens / The Narwhal
The new permitting process for major transmission lines should make clear how B.C.’s clean power “will be used to improve the lives of British Columbians, not to subsidize the fossil fuel industry,” Azevedo added.
The BC Energy Regulator, formerly the BC Oil and Gas Commission, was historically responsible for overseeing oil and gas infrastructure. In 2023, the NDP government changed the name and expanded the regulator’s responsibilities to include “energy resource activity” such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol from petroleum, natural gas, water or other substances.
The regulator has a history of failing to take action even when it collects evidence that projects are failing to meet regulatory requirements. As previously reported by The Narwhal, BC Energy Regulator inspectors documented more than 80 potential infractions during 40 inspections of Coastal GasLink pipeline worksites, but only flagged five as violations of provincial regulations.
“Fast-tracking approval of these transmission lines sends a worrying message that the premier is leaning towards siding with companies like Shell that are backing these terminals, and that the government is going to make British Columbians pay the costs,” Biggs said in the press release.
The BC Energy Regulator has also given the companies behind major fossil fuel projects big breaks on levy charges intended to meet monitoring and other obligations associated with their projects.
Eby reiterates promise to make permitting easier for resource projects
The crowd at the Natural Resources Forum was drawn largely from the resource sector. During his address, Eby assured the audience his government “is committed to working with you, to ensuring that we’re not adding to your burden, that we’re lightening your load, to making sure that we’re not working across purposes with what you’re trying to achieve.”
Over the next four years, the NDP government hopes “to grow our economy by supporting the foundational resource industries,” Eby added. To do that, he pledged “to examine the processes and address those pieces that cause delays” to proposed projects, pointing to this streamlined permitting for the North Coast transmission line as well as a December announcement that wind projects will also be exempt from environmental assessments.
“They are an example of what we will be doing across sectors, ensuring that we’re addressing unnecessary processes, reducing duplication and speeding up time to have shovels on the ground, both for your projects but also for our own projects related to critical infrastructure for the province.”
— With files from Sarah Cox
Another year of keeping a close watch
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And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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