Open letter to the Yukon Energy Corporation board of directors:
I understand that you are having a board meeting this week and I hope that you will be able to include some crucial items on your agenda.
First, as you drive to the Yukon Energy boardroom please note the proximity of the new liquefied natural gas generating and storage site to the only entrance to the Yukon Energy infrastructure. Also note that the dam, diesel generators, Yukon Energy administration and control systems are all very close.
Pat Irvin can tell you all about the fire that happened at Yukon Energy on October 30, 1997, what was lost and what the risks are with having all this crucial electrical infrastructure in one place.
Secondly, according to newspaper reports, your management will be presenting an up-to-date estimate of the possible cost over-runs of the $38 million project. Please take this opportunity to review this project and consider, is it the same project that you approved back in September 2013? Here are some changes:
The LNG is no longer from guaranteed conventional sources that the Shell Jumping Pound facility was touted as, after Shell cancelled that project back in February. There is only one LNG supplier, Fortis in Delta, B.C., so you are buying fracked LNG, and you have to accept spot pricing because stuff happens when there is only one supplier.
The A-train trucking units are still not permitted in B.C., so the transportation costs are going to be greater and - surprise! - the trucks leak. Venting is normal.
The old generators are old, but as was revealed during the Yukon Utilities Board hearing, Yukon Energy could not provide a written report of their status. Documents showed they have only needed to be run for 12 hours each for the past three years.
With the downturn in the economy, Victoria Gold on hold, Whitehorse Copper mired and now Minto mine looking at layoffs.
Who knows what the repercussions of the Quesnel mining disaster is going to have on the industry? Is the need for expanded capacity that urgent anymore?
Did you ever imagine Yukon Energy would need surveillance cameras because of the daily protesters and sacred tobacco?
Lastly, please read Ken de la Barre’s letter to the editor in the Aug. 6 Yukon News. He summarizes the problems with the regulatory review of the Yukon Energy LNG project very well.
This is a decision point on the project. I was on the Yukon Energy board: I know you can stop it, right now, before we waste any more of our children’s future on this bad idea.
Sally Wright
Kluane Lake