In our region, Heritage Gas has produced a report for the Halifax Regional Municipality of the opportunities associated with the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) in Nova Scotia.
Climate emergency policy
The production of renewable natural gas (RNG) in Nova Scotia is a significant opportunity to help meet Nova Scotia’s energy needs and GHG emissions reduction targets. RNG can be a source of locally-produced, 100% renewable energy that can be produced at competitive or lower costs compared to other renewable energy sources in Nova Scotia like wind, solar, biomass, and tidal... Due to the decline of off-shore natural gas from Sable and Deep Panuke and Nova Scotia’s moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, Nova Scotia will soon have few sources of locally-produced natural gas. Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) can help meet Nova Scotia’s energy needs with a locally-produced, competitively-priced, 100% renewable energy source. RNG is natural gas that is produced from organic waste from farms, organics composting, landfills, forests, and water treatment plants. RNG is a low-carbon fuel that is created by capturing biogas that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere. The biogas is captured, cleaned, and blended to pipeline-quality renewable natural gas that is injected into distribution pipelines and used in the same way as conventional natural gas.1
Grant Cameron reports the Goldboro LNG plant is slated to be the largest project in Nova Scotia’s history.
Calgary, Alta.-based Pieridae Energy is gearing up to build a massive, multi-billion-dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing facility near the small community of Goldboro in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, about 250 kilometres northeast of Halifax. Construction of a $720-million workcamp and amenities at the site could begin this summer if all goes according to plan. The plant is being built on a 266-acre project site at the mouth of the Maritimes Northeast Pipeline. The Goldboro LNG plant would take four years to build and be the largest project in Nova Scotia’s history, putting 3,500 men and women to work during construction and creating 280 permanent jobs once the facility is up and running.2
An article in The Economist explains the pros and cons of the supermajors’ mega-bet on natural gas as a bridge fuel to a greener future.
Already, about two-thirds of the world’s population lives in places where power from new wind and solar farms is cheaper than from new gas plants, according to Bloombergnef, a data provider. Electric heat pumps threaten gas in buildings. In future, gas with carbon capture and storage (ccs) may prove pricier than hydrogen generated by renewable electricity. Mr Biden’s proposed $2trn infrastructure bill includes support for ccs, but also for things that may challenge gas’s role in industry, power and heating. The European Union aspires to make its members leaders in hydrogen, hoping it could one day replace gas in many applications while using existing pipelines and other infrastructure.3
Carl Meyer reports in The National Observer about how the four main federal parties’ climate plans stack up. The next decade will be marked by action to mitigate the climate emergency promoted to some extent by all the political parties in Canada.
On Thursday, Erin O’Toole, leader of the official Opposition Conservative Party, released his long-awaited climate plan, complete with its own price on pollution, meaning that all the major national political parties now support some form of carbon pricing. (The Liberals’ plan calls for a carbon price that rises to $170 per tonne in 2030, while the Conservatives would go to $50 per tonne, “but no further,” to the dismay of some environmental groups.)... The worldwide scientific consensus is clear: Carbon pollution, created when fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are burned to produce energy, has to be cut by 45 per cent by 2030 in order to avoid the more extreme effects of climate change. That means the world must begin winding down fossil fuel production today, reducing it by six per cent each year for the next decade.4
Decisions on where to invest our resources need to be attentive to the climate policy of the government.
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