VANCOUVER -- For months, Premier Gordon Campbell has been talking about how his government will slash greenhouse gas emissions by a third by 2020 - an aggressive goal to be sure, but one that seemed comfortably distant for business.The economic argument for not flaring gas is unassailable? We beg to differ, knowing that a microturbine can use that gas to produce on-site electricity. Looks like even the Canadian media uncritically accept oil industry spin.
Any sense of comfort has just disappeared. British Columbia will not wait until 2020 to take action, or 2012, or 2010, or any of the other over-the-rainbow dates that governments typically pick when wanting to safely inter the climate change file. The green era begins in B.C. in just over three months, when the province starts its crackdown on the widespread practice of flaring natural gas, according to draft regulations being quietly circulated. [...]
It might seem ludicrous to burn off natural gas rather than to sell it, but the industry has economics firmly on its side. Much of the flaring takes place at isolated oil wells in the rugged foothills in the northeast of the province, a geography that makes it difficult to build the web of pipelines needed to transport the natural gas often intermingled with crude oil. As a result, energy companies would actually lose money if they tried to produce the natural gas. It's simply more cost effective to burn it.
The economic argument is unassailable, and as of Jan. 1, mostly irrelevant.
It's such a no-brainer to use flare gas, I wish we'd be more assertive about it here in the US.
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