Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 11/02) - As Canada gets set to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, recent reports have surfaced saying that Kyoto would be a hazard to the completion of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

Last week at a Calgary conference, Alberta Energy Ministry Murray Smith called Kyoto an "economic rock" and other reports have said that compression stations along a Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline may be in violation of the accord.

Roland George, the senior official responsible for North American natural gas practices, with Purvin & Gertz, Inc. -- an international energy industry consulting firm -- said the statements are "totally false."

George said because greenhouse gas emissions are counted on a countrywide basis, any one project or plant would not necessarily be in violation.

"You can't view it on a project-by-project basis," George said.

Under the protocol, Canada must reduce emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by the period between 2008 and 2012. George said the pipeline would actually help Canada reach the Kyoto goal and create what they call the "Kyoto boost," which would require more clean fuels.

"Natural gas is one of the fuels that would help achieve that goal," he said. "Through the pricing mechanism, there would be an environmental premium to less greenhouse gas emissions, therefore, demand natural gas would be greater."

Even if the United States doesn't ratify Kyoto, American demand for natural gas will increase anyway, because of state and local environmental considerations, he said.

"Natural gas is also favourable in terms of reducing ozone and local pollutants," he said. "In terms of local air quality issues, natural gas comes out a winner compared to coal or heavy fuel oil and in the U.S., local air quality issues are very, very strong."

While coal is a cheap source of fuel, scrubbers and other efficiency equipment investments still makes natural gas more affordable to business and industry.

"It's not just a matter of the energy costs, it's the total energy producing technology that has to be taken into consideration," he said.

The Canadian plan for Kyoto is yet to be drafted and George said industry fears are largely based on the unknown.

"The devil is in the details and that's the big debate in Canada right now; that we don't have the details on the costs," he said.

George said 80 per cent of all emissions come from the consumer, or end-user, so he said the real solution lies primarily through educating Canadians to be more energy efficient.

"It's easier politically to target a smaller group, but the answer is, one; education and, two; investments in research, development and technology and, three; in management systems," he said. "The solution is multi-faceted -- there is no one magic bullet here."