Heed experts on shale gas

The following is an open letter to the Hon. Craig Leonard.

The Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute have jointly released a report, which demonstrates that shale gas is not a transition fuel to a low-carbon energy future. For our country to meet its responsibility to reduce greenhouse gasses, we must invest in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro, not shale gas.

It is my fervent hope that you, our premier and other cabinet ministers give this report, compiled by the top scientists in our country, the proper attention that it deserves.

I realize that environmental science is not your background. All the more reason to defer to those who have made it an important part of their life’s work to study fossil fuels and their negative impact on the environment.

To quote Matthew Bramley, Pembina’s director of research, “If governments are serious about climate change, they have to be moving away from natural gas.”

This report raised a number of other environmental concerns about shale gas drilling including concern regarding the effect this has on drinking water sources. Mr. Bramley believes shale gas drilling could result in industrialization of the landscape: “Shale gas requires a tremendous number of wells to be drilled… You’re looking at a well-site every square mile.”

I reside in rural New Brunswick, a little piece of paradise. If your government allows shale gas drilling, the pastoral beauty will be turned into an industrial wasteland.

I beg you to do the moral thing and stand behind this report at the meeting of Canada’s energy ministers.