There's a bit of a paradox in the B.C. Liberals' renewed enthusiasm for natural gas.

The government committed Friday to selling it anywhere in the world that customers want to pay for it. But at the same time, the policy is to minimize its use as much as possible in the process of liquefying it for shipment offshore.

As outlined Friday, the idea is to use electricity whenever possible to freeze the natural gas in order to compress its volume down so it can be shipped. The other option would be to use natural gas. It could be used to power the terminals directly - as is done elsewhere - or to generate electricity for the LNG plants.

But using natural gas to chill natural gas on the scale envisioned would increase B.C.'s carbon emissions and put the long-term reduction target in some doubt.

Which makes you wonder: If we don't want to burn it because of emission concerns, why is it OK to sell it overseas where others will burn it?

The justification is that in China - where most of it will be headed - natural gas will be replacing coal and diesel in a lot of cases. Subtract the high carbon emissions from burning coal, and substitute the much lower emissions from natural gas and the people running the B.C. government figure they can go to bed with a clean conscience.

They've helped fight climate change, spurred $20 billion in new investment and made us huge amounts of money in the process.

"Natural gas is the world's cleanest-burning fossil fuel," said the Friday news release. It was faintly reminiscent of the tobacco industry's old ad campaigns about "lighter" cigarettes.

"By exporting LNG, B.C. will fight climate change on a global scale."

Mandating electrical power for the condensing process is an effort to green up the emission equation even further.

The plan is to power the plants with clean electricity from renewable resources and only use gas as a backstop, for perhaps 15 per cent of the demand.

The major policy steps taken to make that happen show the importance placed on that issue.

The big energy companies planning the LNG plants at Kitimat want to brand B.C.'s natural gas as the cleanest in the world. But they're going to have to pony up cash to earn that label - mostly by paying for the new infrastructure needed to power the LNG operations with electricity.

It won't be a case of just plugging the plants in and waiting for the first bill. That would stick B.C. Hydro - and existing customers - with a big new cost.

Negotiations are underway to get the companies to pay for as much of the infrastructure cost as the government can manage.

The other big move made Friday was to relax the expectations on Hydro to produce new electricity.

The standard set in 2006 was to make B.C. self-sufficient by 2016. It was defined as Hydro being able to meet demand without importing even in the lowest water years in history.

Working toward that target helped create the boom in independent power production.

The new standard will be to maintain self-sufficiency according the average water year, rather than critical year. It relieves Hydro of a big obligation. As recommended by a review of the utility last year, it could take some pressure off the need to raise electricity rates.

The downside is a certain amount of weather risk. Importing power during a drought would mean paying skyhigh prices. There will also be a slump in the field of independent power production provincewide, although Kitimat may be exempt.

The New Democrat Opposition more or less backs the plan. The one point of contention is that it should all be referred to the utilities commission.

It's not a bad idea, given the number of energy ideas exempted from review in the past.

But in the gas race to China, B.C. is already behind international players in the field. A review would put the province even farther back.

Overall, Friday's announcement is a step further down the road B.C. has been travelling for years.

And if you buy the idea that everything is relative when it comes to emissions, the green claim is the icing on what could be a big new piece of cake.

lleyne@timescolonist.com