LNG eDrive is a Massive Subsidy

Update: Commenter cpnet notes that in EAO documents the proponent estimated a plant power usage of 1,500,000 MWh / year, which is three times larger than my guesstimate. The EAO document notes it is a very conservative (large) estimate, but at the outside it would imply a subsidy three times larger – about $45,000,000 per year compared to the old LNG power pricing deal. It’s probably somewhere between.


The British Columbia government’s new “eDrive” rate for LNG producers is going to be creating new jobs at an ongoing cost of $138,000 per job at the electrically powered Woodfibre LNG plant in Squamish.

LNG eDrive is a Massive Subsidy

Let’s do the math, shall we? Here’s the input data:

Now the math:

If we want to create 100 new government-funded jobs:

Government is about choices, and this government is making some batshit crazy choices.