The provincial NDP has given the Tilbury LNG plant the green light to take the next step towards expansion.
However, Richmond-Steveston NDP MLA Kelly Greene refused to clarify her stance on the project, despite having strenuously opposed it as a Richmond city councillor two years ago.
Greene said this phase is a “process step” – to collect information and determine the timing of the assessment.
However, this step will determine how the environmental assessment is done of the FortisBC-owned plant.
The environmental assessment of the Tilbury expansion project was approved last week by the provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) to move forward.
Greene said it wasn’t appropriate for her to comment on whether the expansion should be approved at this point.
“I can’t presuppose any technical review of that, it would be inappropriate for me to do that,” she said.
Greene added that the environmental assessment is an independent process that needs to be arms-length.
If approved, the LNG plant, located across the Fraser River in Delta, would have new storage capability of 140,000 cubic metres of LNG capacity for a total of 188,000 cubic metres after the old storage tank is decommissioned.
If liquefaction is expanded, the plant would produce 7,700 tonnes of LNG per day.
“We’ve been very clear LNG projects have to fit within the conditions that have been set out in the CleanBC Roadmap, so making sure those sectoral targets are met is important,” Greene said.
