Fracking Bans Have Negative Consequences For Western Canada

[Anonymous]

Nova Scotia, Quebec and probably New Brunswick have all said they would rather rely on handouts from BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan than produce their own safe supply of natural gas through fracking. This is another thing I don't like about our federal system. The provinces that pay should have a say in the decisions made by provinces that receive. If they do not want to produce their own energy supplies than why we should we keep paying them for refusing to work?



About 180,000 wells have been fracked in BC and Alberta without a single case of the water table being contaminated. I say it's time to cut off Eastern Canada's allowance.

The government of Nova Scotia announced this week that it prefers to be poor and live off the handouts of other provinces rather than attempt to stand on its own two feet.



On Wednesday the Liberal government in that province confirmed it will introduce legislation to ban onshore hydraulic fracturing.



"Nova Scotians have overwhelmingly expressed concern about allowing high volume hydraulic fracturing to be a part of onshore shale development in this province at this time," Energy Minister Andrew Younger said in a news release.



Younger didn't allude to science in his statement explaining the decision; he spoke of "concern" expressed by citizens meaning this was the decision of a government scared of angry activists.



Fracking is big business for the activist community and environmental groups have spent millions attempting to shut down what is a safe industry using practices that have been developed and refined over decades.



The big scary claim is that fracking will poison the water table.



Despite decades of fracking in Canada and the United States, this "concern" doesn't bear fruit. Speaking before a House congressional committee in Washington, Lisa Jackson,a chemical engineer and a rack Obama's hand-picked director of the Environmental Protection Agency, told lawmakers there is no proof of fracking contaminating water.



"I am not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself affected water, although there are investigations ongoing," Jackson said. That was in 2011; the next year she told the media the same thing in response to a question.



"In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater," Jackson told a reporter.



That hasn't stopped the use of scare tactics to frighten people.



And that's what has happened in Nova Scotia -- fear is trumping science as well as decades of safe, successful fracking in British Columbia, Alberta and throughout the United States.



The announcement has been met with anger from some in the business world, putting Younger and company on the defensive.



"We're not shutting down any kind of industry involving hydraulic fracturing in the province because there isn't one at the moment," Younger told QMI Agency.



Well, there may not be now, but that doesn't mean there couldn't have been one in the future. Younger's move to ban fracking ensures the industry will stay out of Nova Scotia.



Next door in New Brunswick, fracking is an issue in the provincial election and it is likely that if the Liberals win they too will ban fracking. The two Atlantic provinces will be joining Quebec in deciding not to allow what is a safe and booming industry across the continent. In banning fracking, these provinces are not only giving up the royalties they would receive from allowing natural resources to be extracted, they are also giving up on the jobs and economic activity that come with these projects.



Meanwhile provinces that allow for resource extraction, such as British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, are paying their way. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will each receive $1.6 billion in equalization payments from the federal government this year, Quebec will receive $9.2 billion. Why on earth should they be subsidized while banning good jobs and revenue-generating projects?



The equalization program is supposed to be a hand up for provinces that need help providing similar services to better-off provinces. Like too many welfare programs it's become a trap, one that sees governments say they'd rather their people not work so they can keep getting the welfare payments.



Time for a new rule -- refuse work, you don't get the welfare.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/consequences-of-fracking-bans">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/c ... cking-bans">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/consequences-of-fracking-bans

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention that the shale gas boom is the reason why the US has been able to slow their green house gas emissions(if you believe that is important). Clean, safe natural gas is replacing coal for power generation.



That is the only reason of course. The US has an inept twit of a prez who doesn't understand the economy. Nobody moves and nobody gets hurt is his economic motto. Much like the guy with the good hair who will be our next pm.

[Obvious Li]

Nova Scotia, Quebec and probably New Brunswick have all said they would rather rely on handouts from BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan than produce their own safe supply of natural gas through fracking. This is another thing I don't like about our federal system. The provinces that pay should have a say in the decisions made by provinces that receive. If they do not want to produce their own energy supplies than why we should we keep paying them for refusing to work?



About 180,000 wells have been fracked in BC and Alberta without a single case of the water table being contaminated. I say it's time to cut off Eastern Canada's allowance.

The government of Nova Scotia announced this week that it prefers to be poor and live off the handouts of other provinces rather than attempt to stand on its own two feet.



On Wednesday the Liberal government in that province confirmed it will introduce legislation to ban onshore hydraulic fracturing.



"Nova Scotians have overwhelmingly expressed concern about allowing high volume hydraulic fracturing to be a part of onshore shale development in this province at this time," Energy Minister Andrew Younger said in a news release.



Younger didn't allude to science in his statement explaining the decision; he spoke of "concern" expressed by citizens meaning this was the decision of a government scared of angry activists.



Fracking is big business for the activist community and environmental groups have spent millions attempting to shut down what is a safe industry using practices that have been developed and refined over decades.



The big scary claim is that fracking will poison the water table.



Despite decades of fracking in Canada and the United States, this "concern" doesn't bear fruit. Speaking before a House congressional committee in Washington, Lisa Jackson,a chemical engineer and a rack Obama's hand-picked director of the Environmental Protection Agency, told lawmakers there is no proof of fracking contaminating water.



"I am not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself affected water, although there are investigations ongoing," Jackson said. That was in 2011; the next year she told the media the same thing in response to a question.



"In no case have we made a definitive determination that the fracking process has caused chemicals to enter groundwater," Jackson told a reporter.



That hasn't stopped the use of scare tactics to frighten people.



And that's what has happened in Nova Scotia -- fear is trumping science as well as decades of safe, successful fracking in British Columbia, Alberta and throughout the United States.



The announcement has been met with anger from some in the business world, putting Younger and company on the defensive.



"We're not shutting down any kind of industry involving hydraulic fracturing in the province because there isn't one at the moment," Younger told QMI Agency.



Well, there may not be now, but that doesn't mean there couldn't have been one in the future. Younger's move to ban fracking ensures the industry will stay out of Nova Scotia.



Next door in New Brunswick, fracking is an issue in the provincial election and it is likely that if the Liberals win they too will ban fracking. The two Atlantic provinces will be joining Quebec in deciding not to allow what is a safe and booming industry across the continent. In banning fracking, these provinces are not only giving up the royalties they would receive from allowing natural resources to be extracted, they are also giving up on the jobs and economic activity that come with these projects.



Meanwhile provinces that allow for resource extraction, such as British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, are paying their way. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will each receive $1.6 billion in equalization payments from the federal government this year, Quebec will receive $9.2 billion. Why on earth should they be subsidized while banning good jobs and revenue-generating projects?



The equalization program is supposed to be a hand up for provinces that need help providing similar services to better-off provinces. Like too many welfare programs it's become a trap, one that sees governments say they'd rather their people not work so they can keep getting the welfare payments.



Time for a new rule -- refuse work, you don't get the welfare.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/consequences-of-fracking-bans">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/c ... cking-bans">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/04/consequences-of-fracking-bans

agreed...the pissant provinces should be given an option...help us help you...or the price of your energy security just went into the stratosphere.....the federal govt. has to get some balls and declare an energy corridor from sea to sea to sea to be a national imperative and use the army if necessary to get these pipelines built...these fuzzy haired, wacko environmentalists and crazy indians need to learn what it feels like to face live fire........cheers princess

[Anonymous]

^Yet people wonder why I'm in love with you? Another bullseye handsome!!!

[Anonymous]

Nova Scotia Liberals made a wise decision banning safe fracking. After all, who want to create jobs and revenue when you can mooch off of BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan which all allow fracking.



If a province bans sonmething like fracking then the have provinces should have a right to say NO to transfer payments.

The Liberal government of Nova Scotia announced last week it will permanently ban hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking.



But they already banned fracking a couple of years ago.



So this is like hanging someone, burying them, and then digging them up and shooting them.



We get it: they don't want fracking – or the jobs and tax revenues that come with it.



Because, who would want their economy to be like Alberta's or B.C.'s or Saskatchewan's, all of which are rich in part because of fracking.



Nova Scotia's average household earns about 50% of the average household of Alberta.



Better keep that oil and gas industry out.



Fracking is a boring, technical process for increasing production of oil and gas. About 85% of all oil and gas wells in North America are fracked.



Fracking was invented in 1947. It's been done more than a million times in the United States, and over 100,000 times in Alberta alone. It's normal.



And safe.



In 67 years, there has never been a single, proven case of drinking water contamination from fracking. It's certainly safer than Nova Scotia's traditional source of energy – coal mining. According to the provincial government, 2,584 Nova Scotians have died in coal mining disasters in the province's history. Which is 2,584 more than fracking has ever caused.



It would be absurd to ban coal mining because of occasional accidents – just as it would be absurd to ban cars because of car accidents.



Except that when it comes to fracking, the accidents just haven't happened.



But, given Nova Scotia had already banned fracking, why did they re-ban it again now?



Well, Nova Scotia has a Liberal government. There is an election right now in neighbouring New Brunswick, and fracking is a key issue in the campaign there. And the Conservatives are running on a pro-fracking campaign.



So re-banning fracking was a campaign stunt – the Liberals in Nova Scotia trying to help the Liberals in New Brunswick.



It's politics.



But it's the worst kind of politics – the politics of defeat, the politics of "no," the politics of a political and media class more comfortable with welfare than with work.



Atlantic Canada's Liberals have a policy choice: fill government coffers through oil and gas jobs and the taxes that come from them, or live off the avails of other, richer province like Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. Who are rich in part because of fracking.



What Nova Scotia's Liberals are really is saying is, they'll take the profits from fracking.



They just won't actually do the fracking. Let those western boys do the hard work. Nova Scotia will be content to live off the scraps from equalization transfers.



They might as well put up a big billboard on the highways leading into the province: Nova Scotia is closed for business.



In the past, Atlantic Canada could blame bad luck or global trends outside of its own control. Like when the fisheries declined, and thousands of Atlantic Canadians just couldn't work – there just weren't cod in the sea.



Or when the coal mines just weren't economic anymore, or the Sydney steel mills.



But banning the oil and gas industry, and fracking – the largest source of job growth in North America, and the source of the highest-paying jobs – isn't an accident, or just tough luck. It is a willful decision.



Of course, plenty of Nova Scotians work in fracking right now. They just have to leave their home and travel west to do it. Don't ever say Atlantic Canadians lack initiative.



They have loads of it. Enough to leave their home province for work, a thousand miles away. Nova Scotia's anti-jobs policies have purged so many young people, its average age is a full three years older than the national norm. It has the greatest proportion of senior citizens in the country. The young people have all gone west.



But hey, Yoko Ono and other celebrities approve, right Liberals?

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/06/nova-scotia-closed-for-business">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/06/n ... r-business">http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/09/06/nova-scotia-closed-for-business