When the Canadian government added the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG terminal on Nisg̱a’a territory in northwest British Columbia to its new list of fast-tracked “nation-building” projects this fall, it resurrected an idea many British Columbians thought had quietly faded away: that liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports are central to the economic future of both B.C. and Canada.
A decade ago, then-B.C. premier Christy Clark promised up to 20 LNG export plants, 100,000 jobs and a sovereign-wealth “prosperity fund,” turning B.C. LNG into one of the most polarizing issues in the province between 2011 and 2018.
My research on this period reveals how competing coalitions of industry, governments and environmental groups struggled over whether B.C. LNG represented a climate solution or a risky fossil-fuel lock-in.
