This story is part of The Energy Mix’s partnership with Small Change Fund.

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An LNG Canada flarestack. (supplied image)

This story has been updated.

The LNG Canada megaproject in Kitimat, British Columbia, announced a final investment decision Tuesday to double its output to up to 30 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year.

“The speed of this project shows that now when Canadians want something built, we get it built,” said Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The first phase of the LNG Canada project began exports to Asia in 2025, the Globe and Mail recalled. By January, with a global liquefied natural gas glut on the near horizon, project partners Shell and Mitsubishi were trying to sell off their stakes in the project. At present, the Globe said colossal fossil Shell owns the largest share of LNG Canada, at 40%, followed by Malaysian state fossil Petronas at 25%, Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi at 15%, state-controlled PetroChina at 15%, and state-owned Korea Gas Corporation at 5%.

The Globe said the decision to double the capacity of the plant was “predicated on a longer-term transition away from more carbon-intensive fossil fuels,” adding that the American/Israeli war on Iran and the resulting disruption in the Strait of Hormuz have set off a scramble for short-term gas supplies.

“You may argue that there’s some uncertainty right now, but if you look at that long-term demand profile and then the long-term outlook, we think we’ll invest through that cycle,” LNG Canada CEO Chris Cooper told the paper. “So that element’s there—generating cash flow for decades. That’s the way we look at these projects.”

Independent analysts say a global oil and gas glut is still approaching fast, and will be in full flight by the time an expanded LNG terminal can be built and brought online. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis released a fact sheet this week that flagged multiple question marks around the viability of the Phase 2 project.

“Countries in Asia and Europe are protecting their economies by decoupling from volatile fossil fuel prices set on international markets, and electrifying with low-cost renewable power and efficient technologies,” added Thomas Green, senior manager, climate solutions at the David Suzuki Foundation. “Foreign-owned LNG Canada is not a low-carbon and future-proof solution. It will export wealth abroad while driving climate pollution. Once combusted abroad, the methane gas we export will boomerang back on us through wildfires, smoke, and other extreme weather.”

Green added that LNG Canada Phase 2 would not have been possible without lavish government subsidies and royalty conditions, and the plant will emit four million tonnes of climate pollution per year. Moreover, “propping up LNG Canada does nothing to buffer our economy from the United States,” he wrote. “It leaves taxpayers exposed to the costs of another project likely to become a stranded asset, while private companies pop their champagne at the public’s expense.”

For months, news reports have also pointed to severe health and environmental concerns in Kitimat, with gas flaring at LNG Canada Phase 1 far exceeding what its provincial permits allow. Black smoke spewing from the site and broken equipment triggered a regulatory order April 21, and the continuing situation prompted an air quality expert from Texas to call out a “free pass” the company is receiving from B.C. regulators.

Richard Brooks, climate finance program director at Stand.earth, said life cycle climate pollution from Phase 1 of LNG Canada is equivalent to nearly doubling Canada’s fleet of internal combustion passenger cars, while “its flare stack puts Mordor to shame.” Phase 2 will depend on “taxpayer-derived credits,” will be one of the most expensive projects in Canadian history, will take years to get built, and will come online as gas demand globally—including in Europe and Asia—continues to decline and amidst a global gas glut,” Brooks wrote.

Its need for “massive condenser stations” along the existing and hotly contested Coastal GasLink pipeline “could re-ignite a Shutdown Canada movement, and will most certainly violate the rights of nations such as the Wet’suwet’en whose unceded territories and rights have been asserted numerous times by Canadian courts,” he added.

“Expanding malfunctioning LNG Canada is like betting on a concrete canoe at a sailing regatta,” Brooks told The Mix in a Monday evening email. “As the rest of the world rapidly scales up clean energy infrastructure, global gas demand destruction is under way. It’s happening regardless of the desires of the Carney government or foreign or domestic gas companies. Real federal government leadership should be about ratcheting up investments to accelerate clean energy projects.”

While he was in B.C., Carney also announced $1.2 billion in new funding for ocean protection, acknowledging “that his agenda needed to be paired with more environmental protection,” iPolitics wrote.

“$1.2 billion for ocean protections is simply pennies” compared to $10 billion pledged for an expanded marine container terminal at Roberts Bank, The Wilderness Committee responded in a release. “Right now, I have no confidence the southern resident killer whales will survive Mark Carney’s industrial expansion agenda,” said Conservation and Policy Campaigner Lucero Gonzalez.