From Dogwood BC email
See http://www.dogwoodbc.ca
Canada's energy minister Tim Hodgson, a former Goldman Sachs executive, was in Vancouver yesterday to showcase some clever financial sleight-of-hand.
After months of pleading by Hodgson’s department, the German government tentatively agreed to buy one million tonnes of LNG from Canada per year, starting in the 2030s. Cue the canned applause.
The minister called a news conference to celebrate a non-binding plan to make a deal signed between a German state-owned utility and Texas company Western LNG. Western is proposing to park a floating gas terminal on the B.C. coast, 18,000 km away from Germany.
It’s a symbolic amount of gas, transported an implausible distance, at high cost. And it does nothing to break German dependence on U.S. companies for its energy supply.
Meanwhile, countries across Asia, Africa and Europe are leapfrogging to much cheaper renewable power. Why would Germany shackle itself to fossil electricity?
Perhaps Canada made Germany a deal: buy our gas, and we’ll buy your submarines. Or perhaps the U.S. State Department exerted some pressure of its own.
Either way, what’s important to Hodgson is that this signals momentum. Overnight, Ksi Lisims LNG went from 33 per cent of its terminal capacity spoken for, to 42 per cent (if the Germans eventually sign a binding gas purchase agreement).
This allows Hodgson to pump up the Ksi Lisims project to other buyers. “Space on this unique project is selling fast,” he can say. “Secure your stable supply of LNG today.”
Never mind that private-sector LNG projects in the past needed firm contracts for 80 to 90 per cent of their capacity to qualify for bank loans.
Hodgson just needs enough political cover to try to force through a massive public loan for Ksi Lisims LNG, in order to de-risk this project for Wall Street.
If taxpayers front at least a billion dollars, plus a new transmission line, plus discount electricity, Hodgson believes that will convince Blackstone and Apollo to greenlight the project.
As Hodgson said in Houston this spring, “We’re excited to help America achieve energy dominance.”
Now he’s holding the Canada Infrastructure Bank upside-down by its ankles and shaking. This $35-billion government fund is supposed to be for public transit and renewable energy.
Hodgson and his boss Mark Carney referred the Ksi Lisims LNG project to the Crown corporation for a loan. Now the CIB has hired a Texas LNG lobbyist for investment advice.
It looks like a done deal. But there are still 10 people in Canada who could stop this American heist crew from backing up their armoured car to the bank vault.
They are the independent board members who vote on all investment decisions at the CIB – a collection of engineers, lawyers, infrastructure experts and public servants.
They need support from Canadians to do the right thing and block this loan. Will you phone one of them today, and urge them not to fund Ksi Lisims LNG with our money?
You can call them using this webpage and either a landline or mobile phone. Once you’ve entered your info into the form and hit Make the Call, your phone will ring and connect you with the first board member. There are talking points to help on the call.
Folks have already made more than 250 calls this morning. Some go to voicemail, but that's still a good way to get your point across. Please join in speaking your mind straight to a decision-maker, respectfully.
Ksi Lisims is an American-owned project, built in Korea, financed by some of the worst private equity ghouls on Wall Street – the guys in Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s inner circle.
Why on earth would we give them public money that Canada desperately needs for housing, public transit and clean energy projects that benefit our communities?
And going back to the German gas announcement, why would we bet on a project that hasn’t signed a contract with a private-sector customer in more than a year?
Talk to a Canada Infrastructure Bank board member today, or leave them a voicemail, warning them not to fund this risky American LNG project with taxpayer money. It’s easy to do and there are talking points to help you get your message across.
#LNG #CanPoli
