Canadian Minister Says NDP Leader Must Account for Kinder Morgan Surprise

Canadian Minister Says NDP Leader Must Account for Kinder Morgan Surprise

For months, NDP Leader Adrian Dix and his caucus have avoided taking a position on the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal as it was a matter of ‘principle’ that they wouldn’t make comment on an a project before an application was made.

However, on January 31st, at the same time the NDP was continuing to claim that they were not going to pre-judge the proposal, NDP Energy Critic John Horgan reportedly said that, “Kinder Morgan would not happen but they would follow due process and let them apply.”

Yesterday, Adrian Dix made it clear that the “principle” of waiting for an application before passing judgement was a sham, and the NDP had made up their minds all along on this project.

“It is clear from the comments made by John Horgan, which now have been confirmed by Adrian Dix, that the NDP were hiding their true position on Kinder Morgan,” said Energy Minister Rich Coleman. “I am calling on Adrian Dix to come clean and tell British Columbians when he passed judgement on this proposal. How many times did he and his caucus say they were standing on “principle” when the very opposite was true?”

Coleman noted that projects around the province have been promised that they would get a fair hearing from the NDP, because their “principles” precluded them from taking a position in advance of an environmental assessment hearing. As an example, the NDP has promised to review natural gas extraction before they would green light the proposed LNG projects in northwest British Columbia.

“It’s clear that the NDP has no principles whatsoever when it comes to environmental assessment,” said Coleman. “It’s clear that they are going to kill the LNG projects next. Why would you bother proposing projects in BC when it is clear that time and time again, Adrian Dix says one thing and does another. You can’t trust them. They are the same old, NDP.”

John Horgan Comments

On January 31st, NDP Energy Critic John Horgan attended a ‘question and answer period’ where he made a number of statements concerning the environment that were reported by a former CTV News employee, Jesse Mason, now a UBC Graduate student in Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric sciences.

In the wide ranging discussion on energy and environmental matters, Horgan is reported as having made the following statements:

“(Horgan) thought the call to clean power was the worst idea ever. He disagreed with it in reality, and would like to increase the amount of cheap coal generated power from Alta as opposed to IPP power.”

“(Horgan) said Kinder Morgan would not happen but they would follow due process and let them apply.”

“(Horgan was) wishy washy on site C but they would entertain the idea under different economical times but not now.”

“Someone asked if we should include LNG exports in our carbon foot print and (Horgan) said only if we get to include our forests as a sink.”

“If they did go ahead with all the new LNG mines they would blow out their stated commitment to stay below x amount of GHG’s. So (the NDP) will decide what to do when that time comes.”

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LNG World News Staff, April 24, 2013; Image: gov.bc.ca