Newsletter: LNG exports a golden opportunity

Our webinar on potential LNG exports to Europe featured Indigenous entrepreneur Chris Sankey, Alliance CEO Karen Ogen-Toews, Dale Swampy of the National Coalition of Chiefs, and Stephen Buffalo of the Indian Resource Council.

Chris Sankey: “Indigenous communities have been engaged in LNG for the last, I would say, 8 to 10 years. We have a golden opportunity to get access to southeast Asia and the European market. . . . If we don’t jump on the opportunity now, Canada will watch the ship go by once again.”

Karen Ogen-Toews: “We need to think globally. . . . If we have a product that another country wants, and we’re able to sell it, then let’s do it. . . . This would bring benefits not only to the provinces, to Canada, to the European countries, and to the Indigenous people. . . . It’s a win-win-win-win across the board, and we can’t miss the boat.”

Dale Swampy: “We’re . . . doing a North American campaign with the Canadian Energy Centre and transferring the message across North America that First Nations support natural-resource developments, and that we have to get a bigger voice out there, because everybody believes that First Nations are against natural-resource development, which is wrong.”

Stephen Buffalo: ‘We can’t deny that there is a global need for energy in all forms. The door is open now. I see the door open. Industry has made big strides in opening the door, allowing First Nations to be part of these opportunities. . . . The challenge that we have is limited capital, limited equity to participate.”

The webinar was moderated by Heather Exner-Pirot of the Indigenous Resource Network and the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Business case for hydrogen? None

Prime Minister Trudeau says “there needs to be a business case” for LNG exports from Canada’s East Coast to Europe.

Throwing frigid water on such exports, he is instead pushing hydrogen:

“We must look to resources like hydrogen which can and will be clean and renewable. We can be the reliable supplier of clean energy a net-zero world needs.”

OK, so what is the “business case” that Ottawa sees and invokes for hydrogen exports?

There isn’t one.

Ottawa’s current answer: We should ship more natural gas to the U.S., which then turns it into LNG and sells it to Europe. As Resource Works points out, that means selling our gas to the U.S. at $3 a unit, and the U.S. reselling it at $10. We lose billions.

There is a business case for Canadian LNG

This from the Alberta government’s Canadian Energy Centre, which declared: “Prime Minister Trudeau’s skepticism is misleading.” Our Alliance CEO, Karen Ogen-Toews, is quoted in the story, and so is Indigenous entrepreneur Chris Sankey.

The Canadian Energy Centre also ran a billboard campaign at three New York City locations, featuring Dale Swampy of the National Coalition of Chiefs on the importance of Canada’s energy to reconciliation: http://bit.ly/3BVtTLd

 

And Mark Ruffalo is wrong (again)

The Canadian Energy Centre also wrote: “American actor Mark Ruffalo took another uninformed swipe at the Coastal GasLink pipeline this week. . . . Ruffalo is wrong about the project’s environmental impact. His misleading statements also ignore its broad support by Indigenous communities and threaten their future prosperity.”

ALSO IN THE NEWS

  • Poll: More than seven in 10 Canadians see Canada’s LNG as good for the world: http://ow.ly/L6gh50KTkpu
  • Ottawa builds new Indigenous Knowledge Framework into project reviews and regulatory decisions, including LNG facilities. News release: http://ow.ly/lECv50KUvtt
  • Haisla-led Cedar LNG seeks regulatory approval under new federal climate rules: http://ow.ly/zu6450KPl69 (Warning: you might find this is behind the Globe and Mail’s paywall.)
  • FID for Woodfibre LNG seen as likely before year end, so ‘Canada will be well on its way to having a second #LNG export site on its West Coast up and running by 2027.’ http://ow.ly/P3FM50KRnyI
  • China ships next two pre-fabricated modules for the LNG Canada project. http:ow.ly/pHpg50KLxTC
  • Canada’s Pieridae Energy in talks with government and TC Energy about East Coast LNG project: http://ow.ly/7jou50KQirB

DATES

  • After hosting the big community session in Terrace, Nation2Nation will be back with its Prince Rupert session Oct. 19-20. There are still spaces left. Register at http://Nation2Nation.ca
  • Registration is open for the 20th annual BC Natural Resources Forum, Jan. 17-19 at Prince George: http://ow.ly/rKKq50KPCLz
  • The seventh Indigenous Resource Opportunities Conference is scheduled for Feb. 28-March 1: https://www.bciroc.ca/
  • The First Nation’s Major Projects Coalition has set its 2023 Values Driven Economy Conference for April 24-25 in Vancouver. Early-bird discount ends Dec. 15. Register here: ly/aKUX50KKKnh
  • The Forward Summit’s 2023 event is set for May 17-18, at the Grey Eagle Resort & Casino near Calgary. Registration: http://ow.ly/Q8ZV50K7FYb (Note that there’s an Indigenous discount.)

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First Nations LNG Alliance Newsletter