Editor:
I’m considering the question - what does the proposed and imminent Petronas LNG exporting terminal mean for Prince Rupert?
The part of the plant that compresses and cools the gas before it is loaded on the container ship will require in the design several gas-fired electrical generating units each producing in the 100 megawatt range.
When a one kilowatt tea kettle operates for one hour and the power is supplied from a gas fired generating plant, 1.22 lbs of CO2 is emitted to produce the power used (US Energy Administration tables).
One megawatt is 1,000 times more - 100 megawatt 100,000 times greater.
Doing the math — A 100 megawatt gas-fired plant emits 1.22 X 100,000 = 122,000 pounds of CO2 in one hour.
The Petronas Terminal will be using 200 megawatts to up to 500 megawatts depending on the volume of gas being cooled and compressed.
Five times 122,000 = 610,000 pounds in one hour. In 24 hours that’s 14,640,000 lbs.
Over 14 million pounds of greenhouse gases also containing a percentage of nitrite oxides and sulfur dioxide will be spewed into the air column every day. With a southeast wind, this enormous volume of pollution will sweep up the channel, over Dodge Cove and into Prince Rupert causing public health to deteriorate.
In a northwest or westerly wind the pollution will push up the Skeena valley to Terrace and beyond. It will elevate acidity in the land and water, further impacting plant and aquatic life.
Is this what we want for Prince Rupert and the surrounding area ?
In this time when the effects of global warming are more and more apparent?
When fish stocks and other species are declining at an alarming rate?
When global conditions may require local areas to rely on producing their own food?
We have to stop this madness.
Charlie Bland
Terrace