B.C. to overhaul 2002 energy plan
The British Columbia government is due to unveil a new set of energy policies in January, the first major update of its 2002 package which was credited with opening the door to a C$5 billion a year natural gas industry and for private-sector development of electricity generation.
Energy Minister Richard Neufeld has dropped few hints on what is in store this time, but there is a growing anticipation that the government is eager to push ahead with unconventional gas now that the conventional sector appears to have plateaued.
Even without getting into the controversial offshore debate, the government has the prospect of advancing trillions of cubic feet of coalbed methane, shale gas and tight gas prospects across the province.
Gains in technology and an expected steady decline in conventional gas output are the motivation for moving activity from the highly concentrated northeastern corner of British Columbia to new basins.
Coalbed methane proponents struggling to make case But coalbed methane proponents have struggled to make their case in the face of community concerns about their impact on domestic water supplies, including the need to pump large volumes of saline and potentially toxic water from underground deposits before coalbed methane can be commercially produced.
Neufeld has insisted the bulk of coalbed methane projects in British Columbia will be forced to reinject their water.
However, he has not said whether he plans to start getting to grips with that issue in the policy update and allow British Columbia to join Alberta in commercial coalbed methane production.
Also on the table is the need to overhaul the province’s deteriorating electricity transmission system; the future of planned coal-fired electricity plants at a time when greenhouse gas emissions is a national concern; and the future investment in “green” electricity projects by independent producers.
—Gary Park
| 
