Those
principles should be tautology; they should be imbedded in the fundamental laws
of all policy making.
A recent
copy of the Telegram (August 14th) read “Marshall surprised by fracking operations in Sask.”, together with
a picture of Natural Resources Minister standing in a canola field; a pump-jack
lifting oil from a hydraulic fractured well, provided backdrop.
Seeing Tom
Marshall on a farm, anywhere, how could one not think that, once again, he had
stepped into a cow plop?  |
| Source: The Telegram |
This Blog
has been deliberate in exposing Tom Marshall’s shortcomings; he will likely not
understand why until after he, and his cohorts, are dragged before the firing
squad of a Royal Commission of Enquiry, into Muskrat Falls, a few years from
now. But, that’s another matter.
The
Minister was in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, ostensibly to gather information on “fracking”,
the process of using explosives and chemicals to release oil and gas imbedded
in shale rock. The Telegram reported
that the Minister’s enquiries “will help inform the province as it makes decisions
on whether or not to allow the procedure here”.
The Minister
did say, “I want to make sure any decisions here are based on science and not
emotion”. But, if he had been true to
his word he would have stayed at home and let experts in the fields of geology,
environmental protection and petroleum development regulations become engaged
in Government’s ‘fracking’ policy. An
intelligent and science based “White Paper” would have been a useful result.
Such an
approach would not satisfy the “Not In My Back Yard” types (NIMBY’S) or
those whose minds are closed, but even they might find some comfort in
the notion that such an approach to policy making would be based on something more than a Kodak
moment.
The
Minister opined, to the Reporter, that he wanted to see “fracking of oil in
rock…I’ve been on the internet checking out things people are worried about.” The Minister expressed surprise that the
people out in Weyburn “…are not having any problems with it at all…I was
looking at it negatively because all the information I’ve been getting it’s
been very negative.” Continues Marshall, “(t)hey haven’t had any water
contamination…any problems with water volume…haven’t had livestock
dying…haven’t had earthquakes.”
Then, using
all this intelligence, from Saskatchewan, the Minister councils: “…don’t base
your (fracking) decisions on one person or on one set of facts…on TV or
movies.”
Think about
it. If the Minister had volunteered to be
lowered several thousand feet down into a well bore or offered to be subjected
to the high pressure fluids injected for the purpose of fracturing the rock and
creating pathways to release the oil, which is essentially the explosive
process on which ‘fracking’ is based, we would have thought him crazy.
But, is he
any less silly trying to understand the process going on several thousand feet
underground, as he stands in the middle of canola field, a pump-jack and a
local farmer attempting to impart, what he is unable to understand?
What part
of the information, provided by the farmer, who told the Minister “no one is
concerned…” is even believable? Afterall,
the Minister acknowledged, that the farmer was paid rents by the oil companies
occupying his land.
If this is
how public policy is created? If it is, for
my own safety, I would happily join the NIMBY’S, too!
The process
of ‘fracking’ is actually not new. What
is new is the scale of its application, especially in the U.S. It is new to us,
in NL.
“Shale beds
now produce more than a quarter of America’s natural gas, compared with just 1%
in 2000. America is on the way to becoming a net gas exporter”, according to
the Economist Newspaper. North Dakota and Texas have experienced major economic
revival singularly due to fracking; other states, too, have joined the fracking
revolution to propel the United States towards oil and gas self-sufficiency, a
condition anticipated by 2030.
Does the
Minister not think that the U.S Geological Service might have more scientific
data to share or a plethora of public policy institutes, in the U.S.?
For all the
good it would do him, rather than being photographed with a pump-jack, the
Minister may as well have been pictured with the combined harvester!
The
Province has a top notch group of professionals, daily dealing with regulatory
matters of the offshore oil industry.
The C-NLOPB, in spite of the Province’s best efforts to politicize its
senior management, is one of the unsung benefits of the 1985 Atlantic Accord. That
Agency possesses real experts who could very capably assist the Province
develop a public policy on hydraulic fracking and bring to the process a level
of credibility now lacking.
What should
the Minister’s statement have contained?
The
Minister’s announcement should have been formulated at home, not in Weyburn. It
should have said:
“In
anticipation of receiving applications from oil and gas companies to perform hydraulic
fracturing activities in the Province, I have consulted experts and determined
a suitable course….
“I have asked
the senior officials in my Department to engage some of these experts, which
include professionals at the C-NLOPB, to compile the best science on this
unconventional form of oil and gas exploration and development…….
“Though we
wish to advance our economic development prospects, we will never endanger our
economy, our natural landscape or our people….I am taking this step to ensure
good policy will result….we will ensure that our environment and our
communities are fully protected recognizing that there are special places that
always must remain pristine, our Parks, our essential watershed areas…. “
If you want
to stay above emotion, above ignorance or fear, if you want to build some
safeguards around the inevitable influence of the NIMBY’S, and they will not be
few; if you desire public policies that are about reality, science, competence,
a level of confidence approaching certainty, you won’t get it from the farmer
in Weyburn.
Next Tom
Marshall should try a corn field. He seems already in a maze.
