Clean Energy

Time for realistic N.B. plans for economic, environmental benefits

Date: March 17, 2023
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, LNG, Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

[Le français suit]

Traditional territory of the Wabanaki Peoples/Fredericton — The Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB) and the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance issued the following statement with respect to Repsol SA’s announcement that there is no business case for building an export liquefied natural gas plant at the Saint John LNG location.

Premier Blaine Higgs pushed a private-sector company, Repsol, to convert its Saint John LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal into an export terminal for energy security, economic development and energy transition. The company now says, after completing a feasibility study, that there is no business case.

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COP27 shows Higgs is out of touch with reality

Date: November 20, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change

Commentary by Jim Emberger, Telegraph-Journal, Nov. 19, 2022

New reports from COP27 are useful tools to assess whether Premier Higgs’ natural gas policies reflect current reality.

  • The Premier calls for a new shale gas industry.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), and the UN Environmental Program issued separate reports with a common conclusion: limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires an immediate halt to new fossil fuel development.

The IISD tested 97 possible pathways to stay under 1.5°C.  None succeeded if new fossil fuel development was allowed. The IEA said new development should have ended in 2021.

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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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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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Higgs must get real about LNG export

Date: August 3, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change

Commentary by Louise Comeau | Telegraph Journal, August 3, 2022

Premier Blaine Higgs is pushing for a private-sector company, Repsol, to convert its Saint John LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal into an export terminal for energy security, economic development and energy transition. We are told that shipping LNG to Europe can address energy security issues due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Premier Higgs says we could convert the Saint John plant from an import facility to an export facility within three years. He says there could be economic development if we lift the province’s shale gas moratorium to speed up the process and make the conversion more cost-effective relative to other methane gas supply and pipeline options. And, the premier claims New Brunswick can advance energy transition as the LNG terminal could “easily be converted” to hydrogen in the future.

Are these arguments factual? You decide.

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Secure affordable energy without worsening climate change

Date: August 3, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change

Commentary by Sam Arnold|Telegraph Journal August 3, 2022

Premier Higgs made one astute statement as reported in a recent Brunswick News story (Feds, Atlantic provinces aim for energy deal by end of year):

“The goal out of this [agreement] is to have something that’s overarching by the end of the year. We agreed to the whole validation of the requirements, the timing, and the ability to supply energy in a way Atlantic residents can afford. It entails the four provinces to have an overarching look at our energy requirements and not just one-offs.”

The Atlantic Loop is a logical choice for New Brunswick and the other eastern provinces, providing the Indigenous people – the Innu of Sheshatshui and Inuit of the upper Lake Melville and Rigolet, and other Indigenous people in Labrador who were forced to give up so much for the Muskrat Hydro Project. They must be properly compensated for the loss of their traditional hunting and fishing territory.

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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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NBASGA Comments to New Brunswick Climate Change Committee

Date: February 11, 2022
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change

The provincial government is preparing to write New Brunswick’s next five-year climate action plan and the Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability is seeking public input until Feb. 24, 2022. The following are comments prepared and submitted by NBASGA.

Read the full text below, or download the entire pdf with references: NBASGA Comments to Climate Change Committee

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‘NBASGA files public comments on planned gas pipeline expansion in Havelock

Date: June 18, 2021
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change

(June 18, 2021)  The following comments were submitted to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board on behalf on the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance, Inc., (NBASGA) a collaboration of Anglophone and francophone civic groups across the province, reference a planned gas pipeline expansion in Havelock, NB.

(Information about the project and the Energy Utility Board process can be found here:
https://nbeub.ca/uploads/2021%2006%2003%20-%20Notice%20-%20Public%20Comment%20Opportunity.pdf)

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Environmental groups request federal impact assessment for Goldboro LNG

Date: May 13, 2021
Author: NBASGA
Categories: Clean Energy, climate change, LNG
Proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Nova Scotia raises both legal and environmental concerns

HALIFAX/ TRADITIONAL TERRITORY OF THE MI’KMAQ PEOPLE (13 May 2021) – Eight prominent environmental groups from across the country are urging federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to ensure that Pieridae Energy’s proposed Goldboro Liquefied Natural Gas export facility project (Goldboro LNG) undergoes a comprehensive, up-to-date federal impact assessment.

Pieridae Energy is currently looking for nearly $1 billion in financial support – taxpayer dollars – from the federal government to move this project forward.

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