The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
CanadaClimate & SocietyClimate Action/"Blockadia"Energy SubsidiesFinance & InvestmentJurisdictionsNon-Renewable EnergyShale & FrackingSub-National Governments
Home›Jurisdictions›Canada›Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies

Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies

February 15, 2021
February 15, 2021
 
159
5
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
France1987/flickr via Dogwood

“Roses are red/Money is green/Thanks for the cheque/Glad we’re on the same team.” 

That’s the tone of a series of valentines released late last week by Dogwood BC, this one addressed from fossil producer Encana (now Ovintiv) to Premier John Horgan, just days after a four-page analysis by the Wilderness Committee listed the subsidies going to the province’s top 10 fracking companies.

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

“International fracking companies are feeling the love from B.C.—to the tune of a billion dollars a year in sweetheart deals,” Dogwood writes in a Facebook post. “Valentines like these must be flooding in to John Horgan’s office this week!”

The two other Valentine’s Day messages in the series: “Will you be my credit line?” colossal fossil Royal Dutch Shell, a lead partner in the C$40-billion LNG Canada megaproject, asks B.C. taxpayers. And “Valentine: I want to anchor you to fracking,” from Malaysian state fossil Petronas, another LNG Canada investor, illustrated with a young child in a rowboat wearing a sailor suit.

In the Wilderness Committee release, Ovintiv showed up as the biggest fracked gas producer, The Narwhal reports, while Shell Canada and Petronas Canada placed fifth and sixth. 

“These companies are the ones that are causing us to fail to meet our climate targets in B.C.,” said report author and Wilderness Committee climate campaigner Peter McCartney. “They are specific companies, and I think it’s good for the public to know who is doing this and whose fault it is when the provincial government comes out and says we’re 28 to 44% away from meeting our climate targets.”

Citing the report, The Narwhal says the provincial payouts often exceed what the companies pay back in taxes and royalties. “Ovintiv paid C$3.7 million in provincial taxes last year and $72 million in royalties over a three-year period ending in 2018,” writes reporter Sarah Cox. “McCartney found that Ovintiv received more than twice that total amount—$167 million—from the B.C. government in deep well royalty credits over two fiscal years starting in 2016.”

The report shows the three years of provincial credits far exceeding royalty payments for almost all the companies on the list—by $137 to $71.2 million for Calgary-based Tourmaline Oil, $210 to $91.6 million for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., $99 to $6 million for Shell, $165 to $27.4 million for Petronas, and $108.9 to $9.5 million for Calgary-based Pacific Canbriam Energy. 

ARC Resources—the second-largest gas producer on the list, with 250 active wells and 227,000 hectares under its control—was the only one in the top 10 to pay out more to the province than it received in subsidies, The Narwhal notes. Between 2016 and 2018, the company received $74 million in drilling credits and remitted $157 million in provincial royalties.

“Deep well drilling credits were introduced when fracking—a technique that involves blasting a mixture of water, chemicals, and sand into a well to break apart rock formations and release previously inaccessible gas deposits—was a relatively new, expensive technology,” The Narwhal explains. “But the credits remained in place after fracking became cheaper and widespread.” Now, the report says a company can score a rebate of $440,000 to $2.l8 million depending on the depth of the well, and the lists six other types of provincial subsidies—including carbon tax exemptions—that “whittle away any benefits to the public purse” from B.C.’s multi-partisan bid for a sustained fracking boom. 

“There are all of these insidious ways that these companies don’t have to pay,” McCartney told The Narwhal. “The provincial government is rolling out the red carpet for fracking and LNG companies—some of the biggest polluters in the province—and they’re not being treated in the same way as every other industry in the province.” 

That leads McCartney to conclude that “fracking companies are only able to operate with enormous public giveaways from the NDP government.”

The B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation told The Narwhal it is reviewing oil and gas royalty credits “to ensure they meet B.C.’s goals for economic development, a fair return on our resources, and environmental protection,” Cox writes.

But meanwhile, the International Institute for Sustainable Development places B.C.’s subsidies to its fracking-dependent liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry at $830 million in 2017-18. The Narwhal recalls a September, 2020 report by Stand.earth that tracked $1 billion in provincial fossil fuel subsidies over a two-year span.

“The government of British Columbia, elected to fight climate change, continues to prop up the fossil fuel industry, using tax dollars to fill the coffers of fracking companies,” Julia Levin, climate and energy program manager at Toronto-bases Environmental Defence, told Cox. “Subsidies are often justified by politicians on the basis that royalties will generate more public revenue. But B.C. pays out substantially more in fossil fuel subsidies than the province earns in oil and gas royalties—and that gap is growing year over year.”

TagsCities - DecarbonizeDrive to 1.5 Failure Is Not An Option
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
CanadaClimate & SocietyClimate Action/"Blockadia"Energy SubsidiesFinance & InvestmentJurisdictionsNon-Renewable EnergyShale & FrackingSub-National Governments

    5 comments

    1. Judith Stapleton 15 February, 2021 at 14:51 Reply

      Please talk about replacing gas furnaces with something that would keep us in warm homes,
      without building more dams.

      • Mitchell Beer 17 February, 2021 at 14:11 Reply

        Thanks, Judith. I’ll have to confess that we did *not* see this comment before we published this morning’s story on net-zero housing in Edmonton! https://theenergymix.com/2021/02/17/net-zero-home-rides-out-edmonton-cold-snap-with-no-furnace-required/

    2. Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – The Energy Mix – West Coast Muse 17 February, 2021 at 05:08 Reply

      […] Source: Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – … […]

    3. Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – The Energy Mix – RGR Musings 19 February, 2021 at 12:08 Reply

      […] Source: Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – … […]

    4. Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – The Energy Mix – RGRichardson Interactive 22 February, 2021 at 12:09 Reply

      […] Source: Valentine’s Day Campaign, New Research Highlight B.C. Subsidies to Top Fracking Companies – … […]

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • ‘Red Alert for Planet’ as UN Report Projects Only 0.5% Emissions Cut by 2030
      ‘Red Alert for Planet’ as UN Report Projects Only 0.5% Emissions Cut by 2030
      March 1, 2021
    • Lookback: Anjali Appadurai Speaks for ‘Silent Majority’ at COP 17
      Lookback: Anjali Appadurai Speaks for ‘Silent Majority’ at COP 17
      March 1, 2021
    • B.C. Pushes Forward with Site C Hydro Megaproject Despite $16-Billion Price Tag
      B.C. Pushes Forward with Site C Hydro Megaproject Despite $16-Billion Price Tag
      March 1, 2021
    • RBC Adds $500 Billion to Sustainable Funds, Faces Mounting Pressure for Fossil Investments
      RBC Adds $500 Billion to Sustainable Funds, Faces Mounting Pressure for Fossil Investments
      March 1, 2021
    • ‘Future Belongs to Renewables’ as Norwegian Wealth Fund Blacklists Four Alberta Fossils
      ‘Future Belongs to Renewables’ as Norwegian Wealth Fund Blacklists Four Alberta Fossils
      March 1, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Alberta Budget Makes ‘No Provision’ for Keystone Cancellation
      February 28, 2021
    • GM Unveils Retooled, Less Expensive Chevy Bolt
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • GM Unveils Retooled, Less Expensive Chevy Bolt
      February 28, 2021
    • Battery Technology Funding ‘Exploded’ in 2020
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Alberta Budget Makes ‘No Provision’ for Keystone Cancellation
      February 28, 2021
    • Sask First Nations Rally Behind Community in Fight Against Uranium Firm
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Empire State Building to Run on 100% Renewables
      February 28, 2021
    • Minnesota Governor Sets 2040 Carbon-Free Power Target
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Climate Figures Prominently in German State Elections This Month
      February 28, 2021
    • Spanish Broadband Firms Tap In to Solar
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.