As with all debates, the extremes get all the press. But lost in the hype in the recent education campaign on shale gas is the view from the middle, from John and Jane Q Public. The average NBer who is trying to pay attention to the debate in between their busy lives, but have to pay attention to take care of the mundane everyday things before researching the issue, if they have any time at all. We don't have time to protest, or go talk to our MLA. It's too easy to just read the headlines, and in this debate in particular, that can be dangerous. As a member of the John Q Public, but one with a bit more interest in the topic, I thought I might provide some of the things you need to know, John and Jane Q Public.
First let's look at the "no" side of the debate. The no side is full of sensational stories of government ineptitude and corporate greed destroying the environment. They would have you believe NB is set to become a maze of refineries and pipelines if the shale gas industry comes to town. All our water would be destroyed and our air polluted, and the worst possible industrial sprawl will overtake us. Picture the Saint John refinery spread to every corner of the province.
The no side cites examples of polluted water and small towns overridden by the industry with no benefit to the citizens. But all the examples are from the USA, where freedom outweighs common sense, responsible thinking, and the almighty dollar rules the day. The land where universal access to health care is considered a socialist ( almost communist) concept. In the USA, land owners can do as they please on their land and the big bad government has very little power to police what is happening on private land, because they own the shale deposit. In Canada, the gov't owns the mineral rights, and thus regulate the way the minerals, or gas, are exploited. We already have better controls and regulation on industry, and the NB government is strengthening these controls and regulation in anticipation of the shale gas industry's arrival.
Let's not mince words...we exploit our natural resources all the time. The vast majority of us drive cars, and buy our power from NB Power who generates it with mostly coal. Belledune and Coleson Cove generating plants are consistently ranked as 2 of the dirtiest power plants in Eastern North America. By comparison to the coal industry, or even the to the pulp and paper industry, a regulated and well policed shale gas industry is should be much less damaging.
The fact is, much of the rhetoric on the no side comes from environmental groups, who are against ANY exploitation of natural resources, and idealistic young people who thing the province can survive is we all just grew our own food, and lived zero carbon imprint lives. But the reality of this stance is that if you want to do away with anything that exploits natural resources, you better be ready to change your lifestyle. No plastics, no cars, no iPods, no cell phones, no credit cards, and I am not sure what you can build a house out of, maybe mud and hay? The reality is, we live off our environment and that requires the use of natural resources. We can limit the exploitation as much as possible, and try to use them at sustainable rates, but the fact is, the modern human must utilize natural resources at some level to maintain a "modern" lifestyle. I don't think most of us in the middle are ready to change our lifestyles that drastically.
So why are the opposition political parties against the shale gas industry? They aren't environmentalist, aren't they holding the government to account and looking out for the citizens?...well, somewhat, but I have a feeling that if the governing party said they were against the shale industry during the last election, the opposition would now be railing on about the "need to support this lucrative industry". In our current system of government, the oppositions job is to oppose anything the ruling party does, in hopes that this opposition will lead people to vote for them next time. So take the opposition party's stance with a grain of salt. They are trying to make shale gas the next NB Power type issue. Our political culture is one of partisan politics.
The source of much of the panic about shale gas in NB is based on a fear based and unsupported documentary (Gasland), and a speaking engagement by a mayor of a town in Texas, which was a town which has suffered the worst possible consequences of an unregulated industry. If you look at the Gasland documentary with an eye on the scientific facts, it is quickly revealed to be less of a documentary based on fact , and more an attempt to skewer the big bad oil companies. Gasland is no "Inconvenient Truth" as shale gas opponents would have you believe. Even the mayor of the Texas town that was brought in to speak for the "no" side agreed that if the industry is properly regulated it can have limited environmental affects.
On the other side of the issue we have a government that is reacting to the environmentalist side, rather than being proactive and offering full disclosure. All are suspicious of governments because they have failed to act decisively in the past, especially against an industry that could potentially balance the books in NB. We are suspicious that the government would be willing to sell the proverbial soul of the province in order to become the next Alberta or Newfoundland.
If we care to listen to the actions list, rather than the rhetoric, the government implemented a strengthening of the exploration rules last spring, and continues to work on more regulations, and monitoring mechanisms. Remember, we are 2 years away from any potential production, or actual hydro fracking. The premier recently said he wanted to have the best environment protection regulations in North America, specifically focused on the shale industry. Lets assume he's not lying, for a little while anyway. If they don't release the regs and monitoring schemes they have promised, then we can go after them!
The simplistic view is that the ground beneath our feet is a solid rock several kilometres thick, with a pool just under the surface containing our drinking water. And the no side portrays that the shale gas industry is dropping a dirty drill through that pool of drinking water and then injecting water and fracking fluids just beneath the water table. And this picture is what has happened at some of the shale gas deposits in the USA, but our geology is different, and our gas deposits are over a kilometre beneath the surface.
The problem is, this oversimplifies the geology involved, and is a poor representation of what the shale gas deposits look like, especially in NB. The actual geology under the surface of the Earth is a complex and varied layer cake of different geologies. In fact, layer cake is a bad analogy because the layers are not all horizontally orientated, and are made up of different materials. And there is 1+ kilometre of these layers between the rocks to be fracked, and the drinking water. So the chance of the gas, or fracking fluids, seeping through 1+km of rock layers, is slim to none. The very nature of a gas deposit is that it is topped by a "cap rock" or a layer of dense rock that has essentially kept the gas from seeping to the surface for millions of years. So if the extreme pressures and temperatures found thousands of meters below the surface haven't let the gas escape for millions of years, what are the chances that small fractures being pressurized by water and sand is going to make it happen.
The shale deposits that are being extracted on a large scale in the USA have largely been much shallower deposit than we see in NB, and the deposits that have seen problems are usually from small oil companies that are not following the type of regulations that are proposed for NB.
You need to compare apples to apples, so let's compare what could happen in NB to what is happening in Canada, in jurisdictions with similar rules and regulations as NB. The most "fracked" province in Canada is likely Alberta. And I am not referring to the oil sands; but to the thousands of other wells that are producing oil and gas all across Alberta. If you spend any amount of time in Alberta, you will see oil or gas being extracted at small well pads across the countryside. And I don't mean that there is oil derricks as far as the eye can see, but there is the occasional derrick or well pad in the middle of a field, with farm land or forests all around it. There have been thousands of wells fracked in Alberta, and none of them have experienced problems with drinking water.
BUT...let's assume for a minute the government is looking out for the provinces best interests, and is trying to develop the shale industry based on facts from not only industry experts, but from independent scientists. They have travelled to the site of where shale gas fracking has gone wrong, in an attempt to learn from the mistakes of others. They have already put in place new regulations for the exploration phase of the shale gas industry, and are working on regulations and monitoring strategies for the production phase, which by most accounts is at least 2 years away.
Let me reiterate that point; the production phase of shale gas, or the phase that includes full scale fracking, is not even supposed to start for 2 more years. And additionally, none of the companies exploring have determined yet that there is gas in the amounts that make them feasible to extract. So, essentially, the "no" side is calling for a moratorium on fracking, when no one has said for sure they want to do it in NB. The only fracking that would be affected by a moratorium would be the few wells that are currently being fracked, and have been fracked without incident since 2003.
One worry with this industry is that it uses a lot of water, but the falsehood that has been reported is that is has to be clean, potable water. This is not the case, the water can be recycled, and the industry is working on ways to use un-potable water. There is also fracking methods that don't use water.
The other boogieman being used by the "no" side is fracking fluids. They will have you thinking that the oil companies don't have to tell the government what is in these fluids, but this is not true. The government of NB has already said that companies will be required to disclose the ingredients of their fluids, for government approval, before using them in NB. And often the fluids are no worse that the soap you use to clean your dishes or floors.
So, the government is currently meeting with stakeholders, doing research of other jurisdictions, and developing regulation and monitoring strategies, in a proactive effort to prepare for a very lucrative industry that may, or may not start in earnest in 2 years time. Isn't that what we want to see, a government that is being proactive about turning around the provinces finances while making sure it protects our environment.
Unfortunately the media outlets of the world have become less about providing a balanced and impartial view of what is happening in our world, and more to do with coming up with the most sensational headlines and stories to grab the attention of the public eye. I get it, impartial and balanced is often boring, and our modern world cannot be bother with boring things. But let's not throw away a great opportunity based on sensationalisms and emotions.
Most unbiased experts agree that shale gas can be extracted safely and profitable, and the government is implementing regulations and monitoring strategies to ensure that the industry develops safely.
Let's dig up the facts and make informed, balanced decisions.
