Fracking News

Conditions not met on shale gas ban

Date: April 15, 2024
Author: NBASGA
Categories: climate change, Fracking News

 By Jim Emberger – Special to Brunswick News – Published Apr 15, 2024

The Telegraph Journal’s editorial board advice (Editorial: Drop NB’s gas moratorium, Apr 11, 2024),  to Premier Blaine Higgs, to lift the fracking moratorium, without satisfying the conditions for doing so, was shocking in its lack of both historic and scientific context.

Ten years ago, the provincial government convened a non-partisan Commission of Hydro-Fracturing, which took weeks of testimony from residents, industries, NGOs and expert witnesses from public health and science specialties. This resulted in the Gallant government establishing a moratorium on fracking, which was to be maintained indefinitely, unless several conditions were met.

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LNG export terminal would carry great risks

Date: August 13, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, Fracking News, LNG
Saint John LNG Jetty, photo Kâté Braydon, Environmental Defense Canada

Opinion by Jim Emberger | Telegraph Journal, August 13, 2022

Editor’s Note: As part of our In-Depth series, we invited a proponent and an opponent of the LNG export terminal in Saint John to make their case. Below is Jim Emberger’s argument against the project. Read Michelle Robichaud’s piece here.

The economic and climate costs of developing an LNG export facility in Saint John are real and significant. Benefits, if any, will come at great risk.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently stated, “Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

He was summing up the warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and climate scientists everywhere. Developing new fossil fuel projects will hinder any chance of meeting the climate targets necessary to save the world from dire consequences.

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Stop the Gas

Date: August 4, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: climate change, Fracking News, LNG, NBASGA, Press Releases

Environmental organizations representing millions of Canadians call on the federal government to reject new East Coast LNG export facilities due to climate-wrecking emissions and risks of stranded assets 

[Le français suit]

Halifax, NS – Ahead of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Canada to discuss a potential  LNG deal, environmental organizations representing millions of Canadians are launching an initiative called StoptheGas to call on the federal government to reject proposals for new East Coast gas export facilities due to climate impacts and economic risks.

“On the world stage, Canadian politicians deliver passionate speeches about climate action, but their words will be revealed as empty promises if the federal government approves new fossil gas infrastructure on the East Coast that will facilitate climate-damaging emissions. As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, ‘investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness,” says Kelsey Lane, Climate Policy Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre.

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Stoppons le Gaz

Date: August 4, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, Fracking News, LNG

Des organismes environnementaux demandent au gouvernement fédéral de rejeter les projets d’installations d’exportation de GNL sur la côte Est

[English version here]

Montréal (Québec) — À l’approche de la visite du chancelier allemand Olaf Scholz au Canada en août pour discuter d’un accord potentiel sur le gaz naturel liquéfié (GNL), des organismes environnementaux représentant des millions de Canadien(ne)s lancent l’initiative Stoppons le Gaz (https://www.stopthegas.ca/fr) dans laquelle ils demandent au gouvernement fédéral de rejeter tout projet d’exportation de gaz sur la côte Est en raison des risques climatiques et économiques.

« En dépit de ce que veut faire croire l’industrie des énergies fossiles, les projets d’exportation de gaz ne représentent absolument pas une solution à la situation énergétique en Europe causée par la guerre en Ukraine, puisque les besoins énergétiques de l’Europe seront en grande partie résolus des années avant que toute nouvelle infrastructure canadienne de GNL soit opérationnelle », déclare le porte-parole d’Équiterre, Émile Boisseau-Bouvier.

Plusieurs projets sont envisagés dont deux, le projet Goldboro LNG de Pieridae Energy et le projet Saint John LNG de Repsol, qui pourraient entraîner une augmentation des volumes de gaz transitant dans le réseau de Gazoduc TQM qui traverse le sud du Québec.

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Renewable energy is the future, not fossil fuels

Date: May 11, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, Fracking News, LNG, NBASGA, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 11, 2022

Traditional Land of Wabanaki People/Fredericton – The Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance issued the following joint statement in response to Premier Blaine Higgs’ speculation that shale gas and liquified natural gas are solutions to war-induced threats to European gas supply:

Premier Higgs’ talk of ripping up the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing and building an LNG export terminal in Saint John to “save our neighbours internationally” is shortsighted, unrealistic and fails to protect New Brunswickers’ health and safety from the increasing threats of climate change.

In a landmark 2021 report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) concluded that to reach net zero emissions by 2050 no new oil, gas or coal development is possible if the world is to avoid a global temperature increase of 1.5°C.

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Concerns to Minister of Justice on CRCC RCMP Review go unanswered

Date: August 5, 2021
Author: NBASGA
Categories: civil disobedience, Fracking News, NBASGA

In early July, NBASGA, along with member groups, Kent County Council of Canadians and Notre Environnement, Notre Choix, and our friends and allies from Kobit Lodge (representing Elsipogtog First Nation), sent letters to federal Minister of Justice Lametti concerning the final report of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), which was investigating RCMP actions during a 2013 raid in Rexton, NB.

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Market Forces, Not Regulatory Uncertainty, Plague Shale Investment

Date: September 13, 2019
Author: NBASGA
Categories: climate change, Fracking and Economics, Fracking News

by Jim Emberger, Telegraph Journal (edited version), 13 Sept 2019

Corridor Resources claims that provincial ‘regulatory uncertainty’ prevents it from finding shale gas investors.  Brunswick News‘ editors endorsed this argument, dismissing the idea that simple market forces could explain the lack of investors.

Yet, the Higgs government, and its supporters, have now promoted multiple shale gas and bitumen projects, all of which have failed because they misread market forces. This isn’t an enviable record for those who portray themselves as business-savvy. Perhaps, they are blinded to actual market signals by ideology, or absolute faith in an old maxim that fossil fuels are always a good investment.

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6 years on, New Brunswick anti-fracking activists still waiting on police accountability report.

Date: June 24, 2019
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Fracking News

Council of Canadians votes unanimously to call for RCMP Civilian Complaint Report to be released immediately.

Monday, June 24, 2019

On the desk of Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is an interim report that Council of Canadians members, Mi’kmaq water protectors, and other anti-fracking activists from New Brunswick, have been waiting 6 years to see. It addresses community complaints about policing issues experienced  on the front lines of the 2013 shale gas protest in Kent County, New Brunswick, which was also called “Elsipogtog” and “Rexton” in media accounts.

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First Nations, Health and Labour groups weigh in with support for the moratorium

Date: June 17, 2019
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Fracking News, Moratoria

Within a week of Premier Blaine Higgs’ “Big Reveal” to the press that they have put necessary exemptions in place to lift the moratorium on fracking in Penobsquis, First Nations Chiefs, feeling blindsided by the move, are clear that any change in the status of the moratorium does not have their consent. As well, the New Brunswick Lung Association and the New Brunswick Federation of Labour have issued clear statements of their support for maintaining the moratorium.

We thank them all for their leadership and support. Read their reasons below:

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“Courts ‘Recognizing the Obvious on Climate”

Date: March 11, 2019
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, Fracking News

By Jim Emberger. Telegraph Journal, Daily Gleaner, Times Transcript – March 11, 2019

The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance was an intervener in the recent Saskatchewan Court of Appeals reference case on the federal carbon pricing “backstop.” Those opposing carbon pricing portrayed the case as strictly a constitutional matter of jurisdiction, and chose not to discuss the issue of climate change. However, one of the first questions the Chief Justice asked Saskatchewan’s lawyer was: “If (climate change) literally imperils the future of the planet, should it be taken into account?” 

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