NOFRAC Calls for Full Transparency of Province-Dalhousie Project to Kickstart Onshore Natural Gas Development
The Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition (NOFRAC) has asked Dalhousie University to release full details of the recently announced agreement between the Province and Dalhousie that aims to kickstart an onshore natural gas industry.
“The province is putting the cart before the horse,” says Ken Summers. “Before asking can Nova Scotia develop onshore gas, the first and most essential question to answer is should Nova Scotia do this, he said. “The first step to make an informed decision needs to be a full evaluation of risks vs. benefits, based on science.”
“Nova Scotia’s legislated fracking ban included a process that allowed for a review of the ban through a science- based review of impacts including social, health, environmental and economic issues in order to determine whether unconventional gas development using fracking would be of net benefit to the province,” Summers says. “That is still the first and foremost question.”
“The Houston government not only threw out that process, now they have decided to spend $30 million of taxpayer money in hopes of kickstarting an onshore, unconventional gas industry, without knowing the potential risks and harms to all of us,” Summers said.
The information released by the government and Dalhousie in December revealed that the province has contracted Dalhousie to administer efforts to attract companies to explore for onshore gas and has provided $30 million that could cover up to 100% of a company’s exploration costs.
“The public needs to know what Dalhousie is required to do in administering this agreement,” says Jonathan Langdon. “We need to know what questions the university has been contracted to ask, and if any questions are off the table. The public needs to know whether the contract binds Dalhousie to promote or refrain from contradicting government claims, even if there is no solid evidence for those claims. The public has a right to know whether Dal’s role in public consultation will be to promote gas development in Nova Scotia or provide a forum where full and unbiased discussion of risks vs. benefits is encouraged,” he adds.
NOFRAC sent their request to Dalhousie Vice President of Innovation and Research, Graham Gagnon. Gagnon is serving as the project lead. NOFRAC has asked Gagnon “in the interest of transparency and public accountability, [that] Dalhousie make public the full text of the Subsurface Energy Research and Development Investment Program,” and commit to making future details of the agreement public.
“The 2014 Final Report of the Nova Scotia Independent Panel on Hydraulic Fracturing stated that ‘only roughly 40 per cent of Nova Scotians are in favour of proceeding with unconventional gas and oil development at the present time, even if regulations are stringent,’” Summers recalls.
“If an onshore gas industry is developed in Nova Scotia, it would be 99.9% sure to involve fracking,” he says. He points to a recent NS Department of Energy statement that “The standard approach in North America to extracting natural gas is called hydraulic fracturing.”
The limited information available about the agreement between the Province and Dalhousie indicates that the Houston government hopes to see exploratory and production wells in place within the year. “The Premier’s full steam ahead approach is irresponsible,” says Langdon, “especially as research over the last decade confirms and significantly expands our knowledge about the risks of fracking for unconventional gas to climate, clean water, health and the environment,” he notes.
“If the government wants the right answers for Nova Scotia, they really need to ask the right questions and they need take the time to allow those questions to be answered,” Langdon concludes.
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Attached: NOFRAC letter to Graham Gagnon
The Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition (NOFRAC) was formed in December 2010 to share reliable information about the risks of hydraulic fracturing and the development of shale gas in Nova Scotia, and to raise public awareness about these risks. NOFRAC was part of the broad movement that resulted in Nova Scotia passing a legislated ban on hydraulic fracturing in shale in 2014.
NOFRAC 