FRACKING PANELS RIGHT: NOT ENOUGH IS KNOWN The front-page Nov. 27 article on David Wheeler’s comments in Ottawa reminded me of his comments last summer as I helped him take his sound equipment into the public meeting in Windsor. When discussing the possibility of an extended moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, he noted, “It isn’t up to us to us to recommend a moratorium; it is a political decision.” I noted that he had to leave something for the politicians to do, and he smiled demonstrably in agreement. His mandate was to see if fracking in Nova Scotia would be safe. He reported that there is not enough knowledge to say whether or not it is. This is the same conclusion arrived at by the Council of Canadian Academies’ expert panel on shale gas. It is the correct conclusion to make. That said, there is nothing stopping developers from researching this further if they are willing to be bold enough to take the financial risk. Nova Scotians already have to pay to clean up the mess left behind after the previous gas exploration in the province. — Marke Slipp, Port Williams in the 3 December 2014 Chronicle Herald
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 01:50:02 +0000