Running on Fumes: B.C. LNG’s Overhyped Promises, Risky Future and Public Costs

Published by: David Suzuki Foundation
Authored by: Nick Gottlieb, Youssef Bouchi
ISBN: 978-1-998631-07-0

Climate solutions British Columbia, renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions, human health and wellbeing, industry, climate change, fossil fuels

“Running on Fumes: B.C. LNG’s Overhyped Promises, Risky Future and Public Costs” introduces a framework to test claims made about LNG’s economic benefits and finds the projections used to justify LNG expansion are greatly overstated.

For nearly two decades, politicians have been promising a huge investment boom, windfall government revenues and economic expansion driven by development of an LNG export industry. However, “Running on Fumes” shows that the LNG industry appears plagued by many of the same issues as the mining industry, exhibiting a pattern of grand promises, under-delivery and hidden costs.

To enable better decision-making around LNG expansion, the authors of “Running on Fumes” make recommendations for key decision-makers:

• an independent review of economic impacts
• integrating environmental and socio-economic costs into project assessments
• establishing a robust system for tracking
• evaluating performance against forecast benefits
• engaging in more deliberate economic planning.