Yukon Energy has received thumbs up from the Yukon government for its new $42 million generating plant powered by natural gas trucked up from B.C. in liquefied form.

The facility for the new generators and storage tanks for LNG is to be built between Robert Service Way and the Whitehorse Rapids Dam.

Deputy minister Joe MacGillivray of the Executive Council Office signed off on the government’s approval of the project Monday, and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board posted the decision document Tuesday afternoon.

With the government’s approval, Yukon Energy now only has to secure the required building and operating permits, along with the necessary land use authority, all of which the corporation is already in the process of doing.

The two new $10 million generators were ordered from an Austrian company last year, with Yukon Energy insisting they’d be an easy sell if the project did not receive the green light from the regulators.

Contractors have already been retained for site clearing and the first phases of construction.

Officials from Yukon Energy were unavailable this morning to discuss when work might begin at the site across from the old motocross and go-cart tracks.

“It’s my understanding it’s possible to see construction begin this summer,” Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Scott Kent said this morning.

Kent said it’s also his understanding Yukon Energy is in a position to meet its original timelines set out in its application to the assessment board and the Yukon Utilities Board, which provided its approval of the project back in May, following a full public review.

The new facility, the minister emphasized, is needed to replace two backup diesel generators that are older than he is.

That the liquefied natural gas is coming from a plant in the Lower Mainland that produces its product from natural gas obtained through conventional methods and hydraulic fracturing is not a bother for Kent.

He said the Yukon needs reliable backup generation powered by fossil fuels – an emergency source with the flick of a switch.

The new facility accomplishes that, and even if it were powered by new diesel generators, oil and diesel fuel are also obtained by hydraulic fracturing, Kent explained.

At public hearings held by the assessment board and utilities board, there was unanimous opposition to Yukon Energy’s project. The project, it was lamented, ties the Yukon to the use of hydraulic fracturing, and kicks open the door for industry and its desire to use fracking in the Yukon.

The Ta’an Kwach’an Council pulled out of a proposed business partnership with Yukon Energy on the project because of its association with the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing.

Yukon Energy maintains going with natural gas instead of new diesel generators will save Yukon millions upon millions in fuel costs. Burning natural gas instead of diesel will result in cleaner gas emissions, the corporation maintains.

Either way, the Yukon needs a reliable source of backup generation that just isn’t available through sources of renewable energy, the corporation has emphasized time and time again over the last year.

It insists natural gas provides Yukoners with the best bang for their buck, both financially and environmentally.

In his decision document providing the project approval, MacGillivray accepted each of the 13 conditions the assessment board attached to the project.

Yukon Energy, for instance, is to develop an air quality monitoring program, and make provisions to maximize safety measures with the increased truck traffic along Robert Service Way.

It’s to develop safety and emergency response procedures with emergency response personnel along the Alaska Highway through the Yukon, from the B.C. border to Whitehorse.

The decision document says Yukon Energy must ensure a visual barrier is erected to minimize the view of the generating plant from Robert Service Way.

“The Proponent shall conduct a Hazard and Operability review (HAZOP) with Safety Integrity Level verification to ensure that the function of the safety systems implemented in this design will be available at all times, and therefore meet the integrity level required for safe operation of the facility,” reads one of the recommendations from the assessment board, which was adopted in the decision document.

Since introducing its proposal in the spring of 2013, Yukon Energy has faced solid and passionate opposition to the project. Not only has the link to hydraulic fracturing been highlighted, but many have argued that emerging science says that natural gas – through the whole life cycle, from the hole in the ground to the burner – is more toxic to the environment than diesel fuel.

Escaping methane gas that is inevitable in natural gas life cycle is much more toxic to the atmosphere than COs, many insist.

Many have argued Yukon Energy is embracing the use of fossil fuels for another 40 years when it should be focused on renewable energy, at a time when the planet is already in a climate change crisis.