Author Archives: NBASGA

All the facts about fracking impact not in yet

Date: October 31, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: 2015, Fracking & Health, Most Asked Questions, Research & Scientific Studies, Social License

JIM EMBERGER COMMENTARY
The Daily Gleaner, October 31, 2015 

In its letter to the New Brunswick Commission on Hydrofracturing (reference “‘Social license’ needs definition, say Tories”, by Adam Huras, Telegraph Journal, 17 October 2015, ), the Progressive Conservative party asks for an explanation on how “clear and credible information about the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on health, environment, and water can be obtained without hydraulic fracturing occurring in New Brunswick.”

It’s amazing that educated people would ask such a nonsensical question. When confronting a high-risk situation only a fool would ignore the experiences of others who have faced and studied those risks.

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Green Energy Solutions

Date: October 30, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, Jobs, NBASGA

On October 3, 2015, NBASGA member, Liane Thibodeau, presented ‘Green Energy Solutions‘ to an appreciative audience at the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick Annual General Meeting in Fredericton, NB.  Thanks to Rob Turgeon (Apple Hill Video), we are able to provide the full presentation for you here.

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EPA report shouldn’t be used to support hydro-fracking

Date: October 7, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: 2015, Fracking & Health, Research & Scientific Studies, Water Issues

JIM EMBERGER COMMENTARY
The Daily Gleaner October 7, 2015 

For four years the shale gas industry dominated local media via coverage of the pro-shale Alward government. Industry and its allies frequented the business sections and held province-wide“information”sessions.

And yet, they couldn’t make their case.

Now these same groups have created a website to provide a supposedly uninformed public with information it somehow missed.

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NBASGA presentation to New Brunswick Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing

Date: August 20, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: climate change, Fracking & Health, Fracking and Economics, Moratoria, NBASGA, Research & Scientific Studies, Wastewater Disposal, Water Issues

On August 19, 2015 a delegation of three NBASGA members traveled to Fredericton to present our case against UNGOD (UNconventional Gas and Oil Development)  to the New Brunswick Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing.

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EPA Report says lack of data is the problem

Date: June 17, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: 2015, Fracking News, Research & Scientific Studies, Wastewater Disposal, Water Issues

Commentary by Jim Emberger

Judging from editorial page content regarding the new EPA draft report on hydrofracturing, only a few writers have read beyond the single, misleading headline repeated in the media, which said that the EPA did not find“widespread or systemic impacts on drinking water.”

The report itself offers two equally plausible explanations for that finding. It said that maybe there really aren’t widespread impacts, but that it’s just as likely that the poor quality and limited quantity of data made it impossible to judge the size of impact. The following quotes from the report cite these shortcomings.

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If shale gas development is so safe, why so many bans?

Date: June 7, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: 2015, Fracking & Health, Fracking News, Moratoria
by Jim Emberger
OP-ED – The Fredericton Gleaner June 6, 2015

The Opposition Energy Critic says that the discontinuation of the Energy Institute will stop the examination of the science surrounding shale gas. Energy Minister Arsenault says that New Brunswick’s shale commission could approve development. Neither of these two political smokescreens reflects the actual rigorous scientific examinations of shale gas occurring elsewhere.

Lengthy and exhaustive reviews have recently been completed in four jurisdictions. All those jurisdictions then enacted bans or moratoria.

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NBASBA urges new fracking commission to be transparent

Date: March 27, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: climate change, Fracking & Health, Fracking News, NBASGA, Press Releases

Recommends consultation with Chief Medical Health Officer

The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) welcomes the government’s announcement of a commission to evaluate the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. A year may be sufficient time to allow the review of all the current science and medical research. However, it must be noted that such research has only begun in earnest over the last couple of years. It is accelerating rapidly, it is increasingly identifying new health threats, and it is raising new issues that will require years of further study before they can be resolved.

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What Really Happened in Rexton?

Date: March 22, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Fracking News, Real Stories

As with all stories, there is always an underside. The following three-part series by journalist and communications strategist/consultant, Dallas MacQuarrie, presents a very different viewpoint than you may have read in the newspapers about the events of October 17, 2013 when police stormed the protest camp set up outside the SWN compound in Rexton, and catapulted New Brunswick into the international spotlight.

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Shale Gas Lobbyists ignore implications for public health, ethics and will of the people

Date: March 19, 2015
Author: NBASGA
Categories: 2015, Fracking & Health, Moratoria, Most Asked Questions, NBASGA, Press Releases

Tory MLA shamelessly urges breaking of campaign promise

MONCTON, NB (18 March 2015) – The supporters of the shale gas industry – the industry itself, the PC-Opposition energy and various editorialists – have lately been calling for the lifting of the moratorium. Their sole, well-worn and questionable economic argument for this demonstrates a lack of understanding of the two basic reasons for a moratorium in the first place.

The primary reason for a moratorium is concern for public health. Increasingly numerous peer-reviewed studies have now associated shale gas extraction with a host of serious health problems from cancer to congenital heart defects, which is cause enough for alarm. More importantly, each study points out how much more we need to know.

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