A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Wilderness Committee concludes British Columbia (BC) needs to pull back a ballooning shale gas industry.
"What we're dealing with in northeast B.C. today is the natural gas equivalent of the tar sands. If the industry expands the way people believe it will, we're going to see a doubling in greenhouse gas emissions," said report author Ben Parfitt.
According to the report BC is: giving access to public water supplies for 20 years to shale gas companies whose practices risk groundwater contamination; holding little to no public consultation, including inadequate consultation with First Nations; heavily subsidizing shale gas companies; depressing electricity prices; and undercutting BC's publicly owned hydroelectric utility.
Expanded fracking activities could double BC's greenhouse gas emissions. The shale gas will be piped to Alberta to fuel oil sands operations, with further increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - injects pressurized water and chemicals into shale rock formations, forcing the gas out through cracks or fissures in the rock. Advances in horizontal drilling and higher oil prices have resulted in expanded fracking activities worldwide. Fracking uses vast quantities of water and hazardous chemicals to force release of natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing is a contentious environmental and health issue with France and New Jersey passing legislation to ban the practice in June 2011, and moratoriums in place in New South Wales (Australia), Karoo basin (South Africa), and Quebec (Canada).
View November 9, 2011 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report
View November 9, 2011 CBC News article
View October 20, 2011 Huffington Post article
View Council of Canadians, Fracking page
Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
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