Environmental risks of LNG terminal not worth a billion dollars, says BC First Nation – Ecolog.com

5/15/2015

If $1.15 billion aren’t enough to satisfy the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation, it’s likely that money isn’t the issue.

The Lax Kw’alaams made international headlines the week of May 11, 2015 by definitively rejecting a $1.15-billion offer from Pacific NorthWest LNG, majority owned by Malaysia-based oil and gas giant Petronas, for permission to build pipelines and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on its territory. An LNG terminal on the west coast is vital for Petronas, which spent $5.5 billion in 2012 to acquire Progress Energy Inc., a gas exploration company with valuable holdings in northeastern British Columbia.

The project would make Lelu Island off limits to the Lax Kw’alaams. Among other impacts cited by the Lax Kw’alaams are the movement of 350 LNG carriers through Lax Kw’alaams’ waters each year (700 total trips), impacts on vital fish and fish habitat in Flora Bank and the estuary of the Skeena River, and altered access to traditional fishing grounds.

Read More: http://www.ecolog.com/issues/ISArticle.asp?aid=1003626838&PC=EN&issue=05152015