Gas holds key to energy shift

North America should export as much LNG as possible to help combat climate change, says Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter.

Speaking to a Vancouver conference, he said LNG is “good for the world, it’s good for China (and) it’s good for lots of other people in the world who really care about climate.”

Porter, an economist at Harvard’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, based his argument on using natural gas as the crucial bridge to achieving a world that relies on renewable wind and solar energy. He said gas is the best current alternative to coal-fired power plants that generate higher levels of carbon and is essential during the decades it will take to replace fossil fuels.

Porter urged British Columbia and Canada to sidestep the U.S. emphasis on the use of multi-stage fracturing to extract gas, which he said has resulted in a “religious” war over fracking and threatens the prospects of economic growth through investment in gas and oil resources.

But his view that the transition to renewable energies will take decades was challenged by Tzeporah Berman, a member of British Columbia Premier Christy Clark’s climate leadership team.

She said the United States has extended credits to wind and solar proposals that will open the way to a faster transition.

Berman said making a blanket statement that extracting more gas will aid the transition to carbon-neutral energy is a premise that is a “little bit dangerous,” noting that British Columbia already obtains 93 percent of its electrical power from renewable sources, notably hydro.

She said the question now confronting British Columbia is how much gas it wants to produce for LNG.

But Porter gained some backing from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told the conference that Canada must continue to generate wealth from its natural resources to finance the reduction in carbon emissions.

Enbridge Chief Executive Officer Al Monaco and Suncor Energy Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams also made their case on a conference panel for using natural gas to lower emissions.

“If you look at the impact we can make on emissions, natural gas is a huge source of opportunity,” Monaco told the Vancouver Sun, adding that gas can be captured from landfills and waste-water treatment plants.

- GARY PARK