Open letter to Yukon Utilities Board, re: Yukon Energy’s plans to use liquefied natural gas
Given the almost universal consensus regarding the catastrophic risks posed by the continued release of greenhouse gasses, notably carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels including LNG, I urge you to include the climate change implications of potentially increasing the greenhouse gas intensity of future electrical generation in the Yukon.
We are simply past the time of turning the page on “business as usual,” including making decisions about our future based on narrow and increasingly out-of-date criteria. I therefore urge you make a decision which encourages Yukon Electric and the Yukon government to establish time-bound plans to reach increasing targets for the renewable component of territorial electrical generation. We must stop investing tens of millions of dollars in obsolete technology and start to use these funds to build a brighter energy future for all Yukoners.
Your decision on this project will either stand as a beacon of hope for a future that is truly sustainable or as yet another nail in the coffin of the futures for our children. Please consider carefully your decision and your own scope for action.
C. Stuart Clark, P.Eng ret.
Whitehorse