These are the statements we hear all the time. Every proponent of fracking says the same thing.
Beyond the utter falseness of the claims, we think the message is getting pretty old and stale. But don’t just believe us. We’ve included some resource links for you. Then you decide:
(Download pdf of Myth-Busters for sharing)
What we know as modern “hydraulic fracturing” has only existed for roughly 15 years. The horizontal length of wells can now exceed several kilometres, and average water usage is now 30 times greater than 15 years ago. Extraordinarily high pressures must be used to inject many millions of litres of water and tens of thousands of litres of toxic chemicals, along with tons of sand, to fracture the shale. This also creates many millions of litres of toxic wastewater for which there is no safe means of disposal.
Read more:
There are now more than 1,300 peer-reviewed studies and investigations on the impacts of fracking, the vast majority of which either confirm the damage done by fracking, or raise threatening new issues. If there were a similar number of studies showing that fracking did not threaten public health, contaminate water, pollute the air, or worsen climate change, we would know about them, since the gas industry would have touted them far and wide.
Reviewers of all the known public health studies stated they could see no way that fracking could be done safely, and that it is especially hazardous to infants and children.
There’s no place in the world where regulations have been able to control the harm or costs of fracking, and Canada is no exception. Regulators are often seen as collaborators with industry, and are often staffed with industry personnel. In Alberta the regulatory body is funded entirely by the industry and headed by an ex-Encana executive, who founded the Canadian Assoc. of Oil Producers. British Columbia and Saskatchewan regulators have kept violations, including life-threatening issues, secret from the public and even from the government. Enforcement often depends on industry self-reporting.
Regulations lag well behind the science, particularly in public health. Gas wells are allowed within a few hundred meters of homes, schools and hospitals, despite studies showing harmful health effects up to 3 km away. Instances of water contamination, spills, leaking wells and earthquakes are the same as everywhere. Canada has not forced the industry to set aside nearly enough money – by far – to properly and safely close tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells.
Read More:
- Alberta to consider testing water near fracking sites: Energy companies are only required to test water quality for Coal bed methane operations
- Saskatchewan’s “Wild West” approach to fracking, Sept 2016
- B.C. faces lawsuit after fracking dams exempted from environmental review, Nov 2018
- ‘Off the chart’ air quality readings in Saskatchewan’s southeast raise new concerns— but little public warning, Oct 2018
- Oil development in the grasslands – Data suggest oil development fails to protect region from threats of habitat destruction, oil and noise pollution, invasive species, road infrastructure. Oct 2017
Perhaps, but are these the jobs we really need? The health impacts are significant. The number of jobs and the economic benefits of shale gas are always greatly overstated. As the entire industry is mired in debt, it has continually cut costs by automating more tasks and laying off workers. High paying skilled jobs on the drilling rigs are almost always staffed by experienced hands from elsewhere, meaning that generally only lower level and temporary jobs are offered to local workers. Currently, many NB employers cannot find people to fill jobs. Meanwhile, young people leave the province for “better” jobs. Are temporary and highly dangerous shale gas jobs the kind that will keep our young people here?
In contrast, the renewable energy field is exploding with jobs. In the US, the number of jobs producing solar electricity exceeds the number of jobs in coal, oil and gas.
Read more:
- Oil bust on par with telecom crash of dot-com era – (Houston Chronicle, Sept 2016)
- Oil, Heartbreak, And Manhood: Behind The Mental Health Crisis Of Alberta’s Oil Workers (Aug 2-17)
- Oil Workers Don’t Cry: Mental Health in the Patch (The Tyee, Aug 2010)
- The boom, the bust, the darkness: suicide rate soars in wake of Canada’s oil crisis (the Guardian, Dec 2015)
- Union outcry as automation eats up 400 oilsands jobs – and it’s just the beginning – (Global News Feb 2018)
- Rise of the Machines: Fracking Execs Plan Profits by Using Automation to Shrink Workforce – (Desmog June 2018)
- Oil Industry Plans to Keep Workers Safe—by Firing Them and Having Robots Do Their Jobs (19 Jul 2018, Desmog)
- Thousands of energy jobs lost to Alberta downturn are gone for good, economist says (Mar 7, 2018, CBC)
- Amid fading oil boom, Canada’s roughnecks seek green energy jobs– (Reuters, Aug 2017)
- Iron & Earth – oil workers are uniting as advocates for renewable energy jobs.
The last thing that the NB economy needs is another short-lived industry that rips out our natural resources, adds no value and sends profits elsewhere for stockholders, while the province is left with cleaning up a devastated landscape.
Shale gas drillers have produced a lot of product, but they’ve never made a profit. Shale gas is expensive to produce, but prices are low. Over time expenses increase, as the easy-to-get gas is extracted first. Shale gas extraction will become a dead-end industry. We are nearing the end of the age of fossil fuels; investment in them is decreasing around the world. The threat of climate change means that the industry will continue to shrink, and long-term investments – like starting a new shale gas project – run a huge risk of ending up worthless.
In contrast, renewable energy becomes ever cheaper as the technology improves. Smart provinces will support businesses of the future.
Read More:
- Fracking in 2018: Another Year of Pretending to Make Money (Dec 18, 2018 Desmog)
- Nine-year losing streak continues for US fracking sector: Oil and gas output is rising but cash losses keep flowing (5 Dec 2018, Sightline Institute)
- Financial Red Flags for Fracking (17 Oct 2018, Sightline Institute)
- How Western Canada subsidizes fracking, (The Tyee, Feb 2014)
To say this is the same as saying we have no right to advocate for better healthcare while using hospitals. Or we cannot lobby for better forest management policies while living in a wooden house.
There is no hypocrisy in using fossil fuels while working to end them. The force that brings harm to the world and our children is the attitude of continuing to do destructive things just because “that’s the way we’ve always done them.”
Read More:
It’s true that gas produces only half as much CO2 as coal. BUT, shale gas is primarily composed of methane, which is also a greenhouse gas – and it’s 86 times more devastating than CO2 when measured over a 20-year period. This means that if more than 3 percent of the methane extracted escapes into the atmosphere unburned, the warming effect will be the same as if you had burned coal.
Studies from around the world have shown that leaking methane from gas infrastructure – wells, pipelines, storage tanks, flaring gas wells – all leak at levels above – often well-above – the minimum safe level. Therefore, methane is now considered to be one of the main contributors to climate change, and the fastest growing.
Read more:
- The Inevitable Death of Natural Gas as a ‘Bridge Fuel’ (Desmog Feb 2019)
- Calling Natural Gas a ‘Bridge Fuel’ is Alarmingly Deceptive– (Sightline Institute Feb 2019)
- Environmental Impacts of Natural Gas (Union of Concern Scientists)
- Alberta is Losing Out on Millions in Natural Gas Revenue. Here’s Why (Jan 26, 2018, The Narwhal)
- Methane Leaks from Energy Wells Affects Groundwater, Travels Great Distances, Study Confirms (, The Tyee)
- Shale Gas: How Clean Is It? (13 Jan 2013, The Tyee)
- Is natural gas a climate change solution for Canada? (, The Pembina Institute)
- Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of naturalgas from shale formations (Howarth, Ingraffia, Apr 2011)
‘Equalization’ simply means that citizens, no matter where they live, are entitled to comparable public services at comparable rates of taxation. For example, people in a poor rural area should legitimately expect to have access to similar government services as those in a wealthy city. The provision of this principal of equality is enshrined in our Constitution.
Equalization is a national program funded by everyone’s federal tax money, largely collected from ‘have not’ provinces (which include Ontario and Quebec), containing the bulk of the population and the national tax base. People in “have-not” provinces are also contributors to equalization. The “have provinces” do not write an “equalization cheque” every year to “have not” provinces.
Equalization payments are also independent of the policy choices of the provinces. They are not charity nor do they come with a moral obligation to mimic the decisions of other provinces. For example, British Columbia imposed a permanent ban on uranium mining, yet Saskatchewan supports the industry. These are both ‘have’ provinces. Which province’s decision should be the moral guide for New Brunswick’s choice on shale gas? This argument is simply an attempt to sway people by making them feel inadequate or guilty, and is without merit.