In early February 2026 the NB Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) will hold hearings on the proposed Tantramar gas/diesel generating plant, formally known at the ‘Renewables Integration and Grid Security Project’ (RIGS). These hearings are separate from the Environmental Impact Assessment, and are essentially restricted to issues concerning the risks to ratepayers and taxpayers on costs, reliability of supply, and the prudence of the project in meeting the stated need for it.
Commentary: Telegraph Journal – Dec. 18, 2025
By Lisa Griffin
A Sunday, December 14 Brunswick News article quoted Premier Susan Holt claiming there are “no alternatives” capable of meeting New Brunswick’s electricity needs by 2028. That statement is misleading and risks locking the province into an outdated, harmful decision that can still be avoided.
New Brunswickers want reliable power – but they also want clean air, protected wetlands, safe drinking water, and a future that does not mortgage public health for short-term convenience. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Suggesting that fossil-fuel peaker plants are the only solution is both inaccurate and irresponsible.
On Nov 20th, Co-founders of Atlantic Wildlife Institute in Cookville, NB, along with founding members of the Stop The Tantramar Gas Plant group, accompanied by Tantramar MLA, Megan Mitton, traveled to Fredericton to meet with NB Minister of Environment and Climate Change Gilles LePage and his Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) team. They discussed our immediate concerns regarding the Centre Village (Tantramar) 500MW fossil fuel plant planned in the Chignecto Isthmus. Below is the follow up letter to Minister LePage, highlighting once again their concerns for this project. They’re demanding if not at least a full and comprehensive environmental assessment be done, but to fully cancel this project. Please read why this area – the Chignecto Isthmus – is of vital importance and must be saved from industrial development of this scale. The environmental and health effects will be irreversible.
by Jim Emberger • Telegraph-Journal, Nov 27, 2025
NB Power asserts the proposed Tantramar gas/diesel generator is the only solution to a coming electricity crisis. The utility, the project’s proponent, and various government agencies seem determined to limit the scrutiny of that assertion. It won’t be until the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) holds hearings in February that we may see NB Power’s evidence showing whether the crisis is real or contrived, and whether it has only one solution – fossil fuel generators.
As we wait for November to see what projects the federal government is going to promote, and as politicians continue to peddle a gas pipeline and an LNG terminal for the province, the opposition to the proposed Centre Village gas/diesel fueled electricity generator continues to grow beyond the Chignecto Isthmus.
There are good reasons why New Brunswickers from across the entire province should reject this project.
Jim Emberger • Telegraph Journal, Jul 08, 2035
On Earth Day, “Seniors for Climate” rallied at the legislature to remind governments that solutions to recent economic turmoil must reflect climate science.
Unexpectedly, Premier Susan Holt visited the rally and delivered an enthusiastic address in support of the rally’s message. Days later, she contradicted her uplifting remarks by promoting gas and bitumen pipelines, and LNG exports as Canadian nation-building solutions. That she didn’t recognize her contradictions places her in a new constituency that accepts industry propaganda that climate change can be solved, while burning more fossil fuels.
It’s an alluring belief, as it offers politicians an easy way to address our economic circumstances using resources we possess. But as the saying goes, “if it sounds too good to be true…”
By Deborah Carr
The public seems largely unaware that the Blaine Higgs Progressive Conservatives (PC) want to restart fracking in New Brunswick. The PCs think we should help Europe transition from coal by selling them our ‘clean natural gas’. And most people do not realize that the Frederick Brook Shale Formation, one of the most highly desired gas-bearing regions, runs through south-eastern part of the province from Memramcook and Hillsborough to Elgin and Sussex. Just a few kilometres from Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe.
By Jim Emberger – Special to Brunswick News – Published Oct 5, 2024
A recent Narrative Research poll, commissioned by Brunswick News, on lifting the fracking moratorium noted that the second largest group of poll respondents (19 per cent) replied “I don’t know” to the questions.
That likely illustrates that the success of the moratorium. For ten years it has, ironically, removed the shale gas issue from civic and media discussion.
Commentary Jim Emberger
Originally published on NB Media Co-op
September 30, 2024
This election marks the tenth anniversary of the 2014 election, when voters turfed the Progressive Conservative government of the day, primarily over the issue of fracking for shale gas. This followed years of New Brunswick’s largest protests, petitions with tens of thousands of signatures, province-wide educational tours, expert witness testimony, peaceful blockades, a citizen lawsuit, and, unfortunately, a violent police raid on peaceful Indigenous protesters.
The new government assembled a non-partisan citizen commission, which took public testimony, and reached conclusions leading the government to declare an indefinite moratorium on fracking.