Nova Scotia’s fracking pioneer doubtful province will lift ban, Peter Hill says critic’s fear-mongering has spooked politicians by Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press, August 03, 2014, CBC News [Why is the CBC reporting the views of an American frac CEO who doesn’t live in Canada and who irresponsibly left toxic frac waste for Nova Scotian’s to live with for years?]
The man who pioneered hydraulic fracturing in Nova Scotia says he doesn’t expect the province to lift a two-year moratorium on the contentious practice, mainly because the government is afraid of upsetting a vocal but misinformed minority. Peter Hill, chairman of Denver-based Triangle Petroleum, says the industry could spur Nova Scotia’s stalled economy and reduce its reliance on polluting, coal-fired plants, but he believes fear-mongering by outspoken critics has spooked the province’s politicians. “There’s a level of emotion that is out there that is very difficult to dampen down and politicians will respond to that,” he said in an interview from Houston. “The politicians will be free to respond to the vociferous minority. … I don’t think they want to solve this thing right now. It’s too difficult and politically charged.”
Triangle Petroleum drilled several test wells in central Nova Scotia in 2007 and 2008, but only three involved hydraulic fracturing…. The wells were the first and only ones to be fracked in the province. They failed to produce any commercial quantities of gas, and the company is still trying to get rid of two holding ponds containing 30 million litres of fracking wastewater.
Later this month, an expert panel in Nova Scotia is expected to release a final report on fracking, and the provincial government has promised to render a quick decision on whether to lift the moratorium that started in 2012.
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Fracking report points to uncertainty
Hill says he’s been impressed by the 10 discussion papers produced by the panel [Is he impressed because Dr. Dusseault’s paper recommends the industry controlled Alberta model to “regulate” fracing in Nova Scotia? And because the papers leave out the most important peer-reviewed data and papers on frac harms and instead, focus on the same industry propaganda pushed by oil and gas industry funded universities and academics elsewhere?] but he adds that it appears Wheeler has been cowed by hundreds of angry citizens who showed up at a series of public meetings last month.
“I get very disappointed when I hear it’s got to be a longer period [of discussion] when under everyone’s feet sits a lot of gas that may be able to be pulled out of the ground in a sustainable, commercial and environmentally safe [Where has fracing been completed sustainably, without causing damages and harm?],” Hill says.
Ken Summers, a member of the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition, says…the Nova Scotia government wants to avoid repeating the mistakes made in New Brunswick, where the provincial government has not only endorsed hydraulic fracturing but has made the issue a main plank in its bid for re-election on Sept. 22. … “They made a miscalculation,” says Summers, who lives in Minasville, N.S., not far from Triangle Petroleum’s wells.
“They thought they could ease people into this and it’s not working. … You have a government that went ahead and didn’t think it would be as politically risky as it turned out to be.” [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to:
2014: Why are Troy Media and Atlantic Institute for Market Studies Promoting Alberta and BC Regulator Falsehoods? And why is Dr. Dusseault doing the same?
2012: Triangle Petroleum fracking radioactive waste water cleanup target missed in Nova Scotia
2012: Community members feel they’re ‘guinea pigs’
2012: N.S. deadline to clean up fracking waste site impossible to meet: company