Social movements fighting fossil fuel developments in Eastern Canada are having an impact, signalled most recently by the surprise announcement that the controversial Bay du Nord project to extract oil offshore Newfoundland is being paused for at least three years.
A research report released this week about fossil fuel lock-in highlights examples of resistance to fossil fuel projects in the region, including the important mobilization a decade ago by Kopit Lodge, Indigenous water protectors, francophone and anglophone groups and the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA) to stop shale gas exploration in Kent County and the expansion of production in Sussex and Albert County.
“Fossil fuel lock-in” refers to how the energy transition is being blocked by political and economic decisions made in the past. Despite the urgent need to end fossil fuel development because of the climate crisis, the four Atlantic provinces and Québec remain highly dependent on fossil fuels for electricity generation, heating, transportation, and industrial activity, and some provinces are dependent on fossil fuel infrastructure for employment and government revenue.
At the June 7 virtual launch of “Mapping Fossil Fuel Lock-In and Contestation in Eastern Canada,” research project leader J.P. Sapinski noted that the 2014 moratorium on fracking exploration and on new wells in New Brunswick lasted until 2019. The same movement also mobilized against the Energy East pipeline that was finally cancelled in 2017. “And we know that actors are ready to respond every time a new proposal surfaces,” he said.
The Université de Moncton professor described the Belledune coal-fired power plant as another site of struggle leading up to its closure planned for 2030. The transition to other forms of energy generation will be contested, he said. NB Power’s proposals include developing small modular nuclear reactors on the Belledune site, “which does not make sense” because of the high cost and long lead time to deployment, in addition to the nuclear waste the SMRs would produce.
As well, the proposal to burn wood pellets at the Belledune site “would be very problematic because burning wood pellets, in terms of direct emissions is comparable to burning coal,” said Sapinski.
The report launch was opened by Cheryl Maloney from Indian Brook First Nation. Maloney, who was active in the struggle against the Alton Gas project in Nova Scotia, highlighted the importance of academic research to analyze, support, and bring attention to the work of grassroots activists.
Report co-author Angela Carter joined the virtual event from her home island of Newfoundland. She noted that Newfoundland and Labrador is Canada’s third largest oil producing province. “Over two billion barrels of oil have been produced off the coast of the island of Newfoundland since 1997, and oil here looms very large in the cultural imagination.”
Carter, a University of Waterloo professor, recalled that offshore oil production began just five years after the cod moratorium in 1992. “Oil was actively framed as a way of saving the province that was struggling with longstanding poverty and what many called under development,” she said. “And so oil was imagined as a saviour to the province, not just in terms of the economy, but really in terms of our ability to be here and sustaining the culture of the place as well.”
The oil sector has delivered significant economic benefits to the province, said Carter, “but of course, these economic gains come with great emissions costs. Emissions from the oil sector are a major obstacle to meeting the province’s emission reduction targets. The government has committed to reduce emissions and to reach net zero by 2050. But it’s highly unlikely to meet any of the targets it has set.”
Carter referenced the announcement last week that due to “challenging market conditions,” the Norwegian oil company Equinor was putting its Bay du Nord project on hold for three years. She said this is evidence that the fossil fuel lock-in is potentially unlocking. “For the first time in Newfoundland and Labrador’s 25-year history of offshore oil development, there’s been coordinated local opposition with support from national movement actors to this project.”
Also referring to the Equinor decision, report co-author and Université du Québec à Montréal professor Éric Pineault pointed out that social movement opposition is “that little extra pushing force that make the economics much more difficult” for fossil fuel projects to proceed.
Pineault quoted the slogan “we are the market risk” from the German anti-extraction movement. “It’s important to realize that often, adding that extra resistance really changes the economics of projects,” he said.
The report is part of the Corporate Mapping Project, a research and public engagement initiative investigating how the power of the fossil fuel industry is organized and exercised.
Susan O’Donnell is an adjunct research professor in the Environment and Society program at St. Thomas University and member of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick.
