Shale Gas as a Campaign Issue: There is just no reason to reexamine it

Date: April 26, 2018
Author: NBASGA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fredericton, NB (April 26, 2018) – It was with great surprise and disappointment that the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance learned that the Progressive Conservative Party has decided to make shale gas an issue in the 2018 election.

“There is absolutely no basis on which to reconsider the current moratorium,” says spokesman Jim Emberger. “There is not a single one of the five conditions for lifting the moratorium that can be met.”  He also noted that a partial lifting is illogical saying, ”the problems associated with shale gas do not stay local. The air and water pollution, health problems, earthquakes and climate change effects of shale gas travel far from the well, and further than originally thought.”

Four years ago the number of studies on shale gas were limited, but still troubling enough to adopt moratoriums in New Brunswick and around the world.  Now there are over 1,300 scientific studies and investigations that tell us those moratoriums were justified.

‘The Concerned Health Professionals of New York’ and the Nobel Prize winning group, ‘Physicians for Social Responsibility’ have continuously gathered all this research into a ‘Compendium’ that anyone can access.

The Summary of the ‘Compendium’ states, “Earlier scientific predictions and anecdotal evidence are now bolstered by extensive empirical data, confirming that the public health risks from unconventional gas and oil extraction are real, the range of adverse environmental impacts wide, and the negative economic consequences considerable.”

“Findings to date from scientific, medical, and journalistic investigations combine to demonstrate that fracking poses significant threats to air, water, health, public safety, climate stability, seismic stability, community cohesion, and long-term economic vitality.”

Emberger says, “It seems doubtful that the Conservatives have even bothered to examine this extensive amount of science. How will they convince voters that the now well-documented threats to their health, water, and air are justified?  And we haven’t even mentioned that the gas industry is a major contributor to climate change.”

NBASGA regrets that the election won’t be held over issues that could actually help New Brunswick, and instead the Conservatives will scrape the scabs off of what were some of the Province’s worst days and all for an industry that has a very limited future.