(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)
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.
Fredericton, (March 25, 2021) – Today the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the right of the federal government to employ a carbon pricing mechanism across the entire nation. The New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) intervened on the side of the federal government, and we applaud this 6 to 3 decision, which allows Canada to address the global climate emergency in a uniform manner.
Commentary by Jim Emberger, Telegraph Journal, Dec. 16, 2020
“Distant hypothetical targets are being set, and big speeches are being given. Yet, when it comes to the immediate action we need, we are still in a state of complete denial.”
These are the recent words of young climate activist, Greta Thunberg, concerning progress toward dealing with the climate emergency. Unfortunately, she could be talking about NB Power’s recent release of its 20-year Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). While claiming to pay attention to the climate crisis, the utility’s plans belie those claims.
Commentary by Sam Arnold, Fredericton Gleaner 31 August 2020
Mr. Kevin Vickers has joined Blaine Higgs in singing their praise of unproven small modular nuclear reactors even though they are at least fifteen years away from going into service. More likely, they never will go into service.
For the sake of present and future generations, already proven means to curb the climate crisis must be launched quickly. Fifteen years is much too long to wait for so-called small modular reactors to come online. They will cost untold millions of dollars to produce and will create additional costs from the radioactive waste that future generations will inherit from us.
Commentary by Jim Emberger, Fredericton Gleaner, 31 August 2020
The immediacy of COVID-19 and its economic aftermath make it only natural for the media’s attention to be focused on the here and now. But we cannot lose track of where we were prior to the virus, nor lose sight of the future. If fact, the pandemic illustrates just how unprepared we are for crises, even those we knew were coming.
In 2019, overwhelming climate science and climate-related disasters brought millions of people into the streets to demand immediate action on the climate emergency.
Commentary by Sam Arnold, Times & Transcript, 14 April 2020
In the April 6th Daily Gleaner (A6) Mr. Srebrnik asked why Alberta seems to stagger from one disaster to another. He included COVID-19 to the list of thieves who are out to destroy the oil and gas industry and the province.
Mr. Srebrnik’s arguments fail to evoke the sympathy he is seeking for Alberta’s current economic plight for a number of reasons. Among them, Canada’s transfer payment system has been very successful in distributing Canada’s wealth to all provinces, as intended. As well, it must be noted, Alberta did not continue to build up its rainy-day fund that former Premier Lougheed started, and that subsequent premiers have dipped into when they shouldn’t have. How was it that Alberta’s Heritage Savings Trust Fund amassed $17-Billion in assets by 2014, but now has replaced it with a $15-Billion deficit? Is not the provincial government responsible for the decisions that it makes?
Report by Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment highlights serious health and environmental dangers associated with fracked natural gas, including links to birth defects, cancer, air pollution, and global warming
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) recently released a new report calling for a moratorium on all new fracking development across Canada, along with the phase-out of existing fracking operations.
By Jim Emberger – The Daily Gleaner, Tuesday, January 28, 2020
A recent Brunswick News Commentary wondered how bad must things get before the concept of ‘climate emergency’ gets traction. One depressing answer may be found in the title of a widely circulated NYTimes editorial: “Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide.” The continuing unimaginable conflagration of Australian bushfires has already burned an area much larger than New Brunswick, destroyed thousands of homes, and killed over a billion animals.
Decades will pass before knowing how many human lives will be lost or shortened by exposure to the world’s worst air pollution. An air quality index (AQI) above 200 is defined as hazardous. The AQI in Canberra has hit 4,650. Climate scientists have long predicted such events, as the conditions that created them are well-studied climate topics.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fredericton (Dec. 16, 2019) — Over the next three days the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) will be acting as an intervener in the Alberta Court of Appeals reference case on carbon pricing (under the umbrella name of Climate Justice). It will be supporting the position that the federal government has the right to address climate change by setting national minimum standards, including a price on carbon.