VANCOUVER—BC’s Oil and Gas Commission withheld a report from the public for four years showing that 900 gas wells could be leaking methane - a finding that highlights why a public inquiry into oil and gas industry fracking operations is needed.
The Commission published the December 2013 report on its website on November 20 after a copy of the document was leaked.
During a break from answering questions in the legislature about Site C this week, Energy Minister Michelle Mungall faced down a call for a full blown public inquiry and possible moratorium on fracking in the natural gas sector.
British Columbia's gas industry regulator launched a string of enforcement orders this fall against fracking dams in the province's gas-rich northeast.
The crackdown comes amidst questions being raised about the independence of the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission from the whims of industry, raised by a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who documented at least 50 illegally built dams.
Prior to last spring’s provincial election, the B.C. NDP promised to appoint a panel to examine the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in B.C., a review that would include an investigation into the natural gas industry’s impacts on water, earthquakes and greenhouse gas emissions.
VANCOUVER – A promised “review” of natural gas industry fracking operations should be broadened to a full Public Inquiry that examines all aspects of the dangerous gas extraction technique, says a coalition of community, First Nation and environmental organizations.
The call on the new BC government is to broaden a promise first made by the NDP during the lead-up to the spring provincial election, and comes on the heels of new revelations about the fracking process, including:
Data shows companies made much higher payments to developing countries in 2016 than to Canadian, provincial governments
Thursday 26 October 2017
Canada taxes its oil and gas companies at a fraction of the rate they are taxed abroad, including by countries ranked among the world’s most corrupt, according to an analysis of public data by the Guardian.
British Columbia's NDP government is facing controversy over liquefied natural gas as environmental groups warn that a project led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC will derail the province's efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy.
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland will block fracking indefinitely after a public consultation found overwhelming opposition to the practice, the British region’s energy minister said on Tuesday in a victory for environmentalists.
