PRGT: Another Predatory Strategy
Floating down the Nass River Valley on a balmy July day, perched on a glaringly-yellow catamaran, we huddle around a coveted pair of binoculars, desperate to catch a glimpse of the passing humpback whales and grizzly bears loping along on the beach shore. It’s an idyllic tableau clouded with grief: this salmon-bearing estuary is the precise construction location for the proposed project terminal of BC’s latest colonial mega-project, phase 2 of LNG Canada: the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline. Awash with deja-vu, hereditary leaders recount their initial defeat of this zombie pipeline back in 2017 and the harrowing battle against the nearby Coastal Gaslink pipeline. The new proposed PRGT line is close neighbour to Coastal Gaslink, in more ways than one. Both initially established by the nefarious TC Energy, these projects, rather incestuously, share a revolving door of personnel, including their head lobbyist and “Indigenous issue” manager, and along with it, a finely-tuned strategic playbook to ram projects through opposed Indigenous communities.
Coastal Gaslink and the proposed PRGT pipeline are not isolated examples—the global fossil fuel industry has carefully developed a coordinated playbook to greenlight and lock-in new carbon bomb infrastructure, on their desperate dash to drain the last drops of oil. Faced with fierce public scrutiny, companies are now forced to level beyond routine greenwashing, and deploy even more shrewd strategies to maintain their social license to operate, squash opposition and leech taxpayer dollars. These are tried and true tactics used to force fossil mega-projects, abused countless times by major oil companies worldwide, from Nigeria to Ireland. If we are to bring this death industry to its knees, we must attack from all sides, wrenching holes in their entire petro-playbook.
Coastal Gaslink et le gazoduc PRGT proposé ne sont pas des exemples isolés : l’industrie mondiale des combustibles fossiles a soigneusement développé une stratégie visant à instaurer de manière définitive de nouvelles infrastructures de bombes carbones, dans un effort désespéré d’extraire les dernières gouttes de combustible fossile. Confrontées à de vives critiques du public, les entreprises sont forcées de recourir à des stratégies qui vont au-delà de l’écoblanchiment habituel, et de déployer des tactiques encore plus sournoises afin de conserver l’acceptabilité sociale pour pouvoir poursuivre leurs opérations, écraser l’opposition et siphonner l’argent des contribuables. Ce sont des tactiques éprouvées pour imposer les méga projets de l’industrie des combustibles fossiles, et d’importantes compagnies pétrolières en ont abusé partout dans le monde, du Nigeria à l’Irlande. Si nous voulons mettre cette industrie mortifère à genoux, nous devons l’attaquer de tous les côtés, et créer des failles dans l’entièreté de sa stratégie pétrolière.
At a bird’s eye view, this predatory petro-playbook is unfolding with three major strategic prongs:
- Sell communities on short-term benefits, greenwash, divide opposition and poorly communicate the real risks.
- Squeeze governments for project financing, policing of Land defenders and regulatory loopholes, to make the project viable.
- Shape-shift to protect CEOs and shareholders, offloading costs to communities and taxpayers, particularly when the project goes poorly.
Before delving into this playbook’s application to the proposed PRGT pipeline, the next major affront to climate and Indigenous rights, I’ll share a brief history of this project and surrounding resistance. The B.C. government approved this TC Energy pipeline more than 10 years ago, under conservative leadership, but the project was immediately blockaded by Gitxsan leaders and Land defenders. Land defense boiled to a fever pitch in 2017, resulting in the project’s cancellation. However, in the intervening years, industry has conspired to revive this zombie pipeline. The project’s Environmental Assessment Certificate expired on November 25, 2024. The B.C. government must now decide whether to revive PRGT’s 10 year-old certificate, or let the project expire. Indigenous leaders and allied organizations along the pipeline route are calling on the B.C. government to reject PRGT—or at least put this pipeline through a modern Environmental Assessment. While this project stands at a crossroad, awaiting the certificate decision, much is unfolding behind the scenes to fast-track this mega-pipeline.
Sell
While Western LNG have boasted the benefits, some short-term construction jobs and revenue, they have purposely failed to communicate all the ecological, social and financial risks to the Nisga’a nation, an equity partner. To date, community members have been kept in the dark about project risks, potential loans, cost to nation members and the source of project financing. Consequently, there is growing dissent within the Nisga'a nation on PRGT’s harms, potential costs and liabilities. Richard Cecil Mercer, a Nisga’a nation member, organized a petition with over 200 Nisga’a signatures to explore an injunction against PRGT, and later escalated action with another PRGT construction blockade on Nisga’a territories. As equity owners with a 50% stake in the project, the Nisga’a nation are now exposed to a range of liabilities. The global LNG market faces a supply glut in the medium-term, around 2030, when these projects would go online. These market risks and construction cost overruns will result in higher operating costs, dragging profit margins into a negative debt spiral. LNG exports also mean higher bills for everyone in BC, increasing the price of hydro and natural gas. To fast-track and greenlight this colonial mega-project, Western LNG and the BC government will attempt to divide communities with short-term benefits, under the guise of “economic reconciliation.”
Squeeze
To make this project viable, TC Energy and Western LNG have been hard at work to squeeze governments for project financing and loopholes. In a bombshell investigation from the Narwhal, leaked recordings revealed how a TC Energy exec claimed to influence the B.C. government on climate policy. During a Zoom “Lunch and Learn” for executives, TC Energy’s Liam Iliffe boasted about the company’s relentless lobbying tactics -- ranging from a wine-and-dine strategy, jetsetting the Premier to Asia on ambassador lobby trips, to “coincidental” meetings with Ministers in airport terminals and Costco cooler section. And it appears their nefarious lobbying has already paid off. As of April 2023, TC Energy’s lobbying activities reshaped B.C.’s carbon tax policies, cutting TC Energy’s liability by 50%. TC Energy can also be credited for the Premier’s marked tune-change on LNG.
When elected in 2022, Premier Eby famously stated that “we cannot continue to expand fossil fuel infrastructure and hit our climate goals.” Two short years later, Eby revealed that “we’re at the table with [LNG Canada] about how we can achieve both of our goals.” This is the stupefying effect of dogged, well-funded lobbying on public officials. It’s far from over, these corporations are furiously preparing their wishlists, rumbling and ready to accost the newly elected NDP government.
Shape-shift
In this death-rattle era of the fossil industry, it’s more important to approve new projects and display growth for investors, than actually extract and execute a profitable project. Fossil companies will morph and contort themselves—shape-shift—into the configuration needed to ram a project through. PRGT, formerly owned by controversial TC Energy (2014-2024), was offloaded to Western LNG and Nisga’a Nation in June 2024. Western LNG is a new company with no previous project experience and murky private financing—a risky bet, shell company partnership. These fossil shape-shifters are notoriously skilled at puncturing regulatory loopholes to fast-track projects. PRGT is attempting to immortalize its ancient decade-old environmental permit, without any new assessment. This is baffling on several accounts. The revived project is practically unrecognizable, with a new route and terminal. BC climate and Indigenous law has changed. And the science has changed too. We now know that LNG is actually worse than coal and displaces renewables—a far cry from being a “bridge” in the energy transition. If the BC LNG boom materializes, these projects would cause more than $1 trillion in climate damage.
In March, newly-appointed Environment Minister, Tamara Davidson, must decide whether the PRGT pipeline can move forward or if it needs to begin all over again in a new environmental assessment process. However, we cannot trust colonial governments to respect Indigenous rights and order a new environmental assessment. As a movement, we need to prepare for this project to be rubber-stamped and fast-tracked in early spring. To face industry’s predatory petro-playbook head-on, we need to get educated, organized and prepare for the tumultuous months ahead.