We are happy to announce that NBASGA spokesperson, Jim Emberger, has won the first annual Beth McLaughlin Environmental Journalism Award for his extensive reporting on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing.
The panel of judges, selected by the Southeast Chapter of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, cited Emberger’s extensively researched writing for focusing attention on a significant environmental issue and helping to deepen public understanding of it.
Jim Emberger Commentary, Telegraph Journal July 12,2016
In the government’s mandate to the Commission on Hydrofracturing were five instructions, including how to obtain ‘social license’. While there is no legal definition of that term, social license is, in essence, the citizenry’s informed decision on whether or not to proceed with an industry based on an evaluation of the risks and benefits.
On Friday, May 27, 2016, the Brian Gallant Liberal government announced that the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing would continue indefinitely. Below are links to NBASGA’s official Press Statement on the extended moratorium, and comments from spokesperson, Jim Emberger, as well as congratulatory notes from our supporters around the world.
This is a good day for the People, the Province, the Planet…and for our Democratic Process.
by Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post, 27 May 2016
INTERNATIONAL support is growing for Ryedale’s anti-fracking movement as Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom claims that the extraction of shale gas in North Yorkshire is “an opportunity we can’t afford to miss” if UK energy supplies are to be secured. A week after more than 850 elected civic leaders from New York State urged North Yorkshire County Council to reject Third Energy’s application for a test site at Kirby Misperton – a plea that fell on deaf ears on Monday night – opponents in the Canadian province of New Brunswick are the latest to lend their support.
In encouraging local news, The Environmental Advisory Committee, established by the Provincial Government of PEI to create a new Water Act, has recommended banning fracking in PEI. This conforms to the trend of the last few years, as the case against shale gas and fracking grows with each new study, regardless of topic – water contamination, public health, earthquakes, climate change, etc.
Recently, news on fracking has taken a decided about-face from the many stories previously singing its praises. The truth is beginning to emerge.
by Alec Bruce
It was fun while it lasted, but the people have spoken. So have New Brunswick’s all-but-departed, hydraulic-fracturing development and production companies. Now, we can declare it: Dear fracking, rest in peace.
You were the bad boy of the oil and gas industry in these parts.
Jim Emberger Commentary, Telegraph Journal, 27 March 2016
Krista Ross’ [Fredericton Chamber of Commerce] recent commentary (12 March 2016) suggested that New Brunswick’s citizens are too unsophisticated to understand the science behind the risks surrounding shale gas, making them easy targets for shale gas opponents to manipulate with fear.
These condescending assertions are, fortunately, easy to dismiss. Our Alliance continues to direct the public to the hundreds of independent scientific studies that are now collected into a Compendium available at: http://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/.
On World Water Day, Canadian hydro-geologist Dr. John Cherry was awarded this year’s Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize during Singapore’s World Water Week. The prize honours outstanding contributions by individuals or organizations towards solving the world’s water challenges by applying innovative technologies, policies or programs, which benefit humanity.
In November, Dr. Cherry spoke to the NB Commission on Hydrofracturing about the risks of groundwater contamination and shale gas extraction.
Commentary by Keith Helmuth, Woodstock Sustainable Energy Group
Telegraph Journal, 18 March 2016
What kind of economy will New Brunswick have in the new energy future? A renewable energy platform is clearly coming and new energy platforms create new economies. The extraction and refining of hydrocarbons launched a new energy platform, which has created the modern economy and its many benefits. However, the growth of the hydrocarbon economy has now developed to such a scale that it has burst through the safe operating limits of earth’s geochemical and ecological boundaries, with increasingly negative effects. This is an unwelcome thought. We used to think that hydrocarbon energy paved the road to a better life. Up to a point, this idea made sense, but a threshold of reversal has been crossed.
The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance provides the following statement about the report issued last Friday by the New Brunswick Commission on Hydrofracturing.
The Commissioners recognized that the discussion about shale gas had to be looked at in the contexts of the immediate need to combat climate change, the lack of a coherent and forward-looking energy policy for the province, and the inadequacy of current institutions and procedures in New Brunswick to deal with either shale gas or with the new realities of a low-carbon world.