The cost of heating more than a million homes, farms and businesses across B.C. could soon jump again, as fossil gas prices double later this year.

That’s according to a forecast by the B.C. government included in Tuesday’s budget, which predicts a 113 per cent increase in the price of fossil gas this fiscal year.

The cost spike is largely caused by connecting B.C.’s gas supply to higher-priced markets overseas, as the province begins exporting liquified natural gas or LNG.

It’s good news for KKR, the Wall Street private equity firm that owns a majority stake in the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

It means more profits for U.S. investors, and American fracking companies like Ovintiv that have operations in B.C.

But the LNG price hike is yet another strain for households facing financial uncertainty. And if gas prices double, food producers, ferries and warehouses will likely pass those costs on to consumers, driving inflation.

FortisBC jacked up gas bills in January

It’s been just two months since monopoly gas retailer FortisBC slapped customers with higher fees to help pay for its own LNG pipeline.

The private utility is building the Eagle Mountain pipeline to the Woodfibre LNG terminal in Squamish. But the project ran into cost overruns, so FortisBC gave itself a cash injection from ratepayers.

Fortis claims the average customer is paying an extra $14.25 per month. But people burn more gas in winter, so the price hike hit harder in January and February.

Now FortisBC customers can expect to pay even more as LNG terminals come online. 

“We do not mark up the cost of gas, so customers pay what we pay,” FortisBC spokesperson Diana Sorace told Dogwood. “Our next review of gas rates will come into effect on April 1.”

FortisBC “must apply to the BC Utilities Commision for approval to increase rates, including increases to the commodity cost,” said the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions in an email.

The current wholesale cost of gas is $2.23 per Gigajoule (GJ). If it goes up by 113 per cent as the government predicts, gas could suddenly cost $4.75 per GJ.

That’s an extra $18.90 a month for a customer burning 7.5 GJ of gas. Add on Fortis’s $14.25 pipeline charge and the same customer will be paying $33.15 more every month – that’s $400 a year, just to support LNG exports.

Billionaire Trump allies pitch another mega terminal

Wall Street investors are doing their best to whip up excitement for yet more LNG projects, even as construction costs climb out of control.

With Trump as their pitch man shouting “drill baby drill,” KKR, Blackstone and other firms are pushing more export terminals in Mexico, Alaska and British Columbia.

Meanwhile LNG demand is actually falling across Europe, and in industrialized economies like Japan and South Korea.

But the billionaires pumping up the LNG bubble figure they can make new customers, by getting developing countries to burn gas for electricity.

Regardless of whether this works long-term, they can pocket hundreds of millions by arranging financing for terminals from banks, pension funds and governments. 

Blackstone and Apollo Global Management are two of the Wall Street firms behind the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission project and Ksi Lisims LNG. Both have CEOs in Trump’s inner circle, who made big donations to help his election. 

The Americans want approvals from the B.C. government this spring. And they seem confident Premier David Eby will give the green light to PRGT.

B.C. government chases gas royalties

Why would Eby hand more control of B.C.’s strategic energy resources to the U.S. billionaires advising the man threatening to annex us? 

Why would Eby approve more LNG exports, even if they punish B.C. families with higher prices for home heating and food?

Why would Eby “fast-track” a floating terminal like Cedar LNG, which is being built at a shipyard in Korea, employing zero Canadian workers?

Why would Eby subsidize foreign-owned gas terminals with our renewable electricity, building them billions’ worth of infrastructure to boost their profits?

It all comes down to the belief that LNG will solve B.C.’s fiscal woes, providing jobs and revenue to plug our budget deficit.

The provincial government does predict a modest increase of $344 million in gas royalties this year, as more gas comes out of the ground at higher prices.

But if fossil gas prices double this year as predicted, it will also cost B.C. households and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars through increased energy bills.

That’s what happened in Australia when they became major exporters of LNG. People’s gas bills tripled.

And that’s what happened in the U.S. over the last decade. In fact that’s why Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, paused new LNG terminals.

“The Ministry will continue to work with natural gas utilities to find ways to keep costs down for their customers,” the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions said in an email to Dogwood, without providing specifics.

How do we get out of this trap?

Like all Wall Street bubbles, the LNG bubble will implode sooner or later – leaving bankruptcies and massively overvalued terminals gathering rust.

Companies in Asia are already canceling import terminals and holding back investment for some of the kookier LNG projects being hyped up by Trump. 

We can limit the risks for British Columbians by limiting the number of terminals we build – and that means saying no to Wall Street’s PRGT megaproject.

Unfortunately fossil gas prices are on track to double in B.C. this year, because of the American-owned Coastal GasLink pipeline. But we can prevent the additional cost increases forecasted in future years.

And we can create jobs by building wind and solar projects that give people a more affordable alternative to fossil fuels.

In fact, if we had surplus clean energy, we could sell it to friendly states like Washington, Oregon and California and generate even more revenue.

That’s how to win this trade war – not by lining the pockets of Trump’s closest allies, at the expense of B.C. families.