It’s time: make the fracking moratorium permanent

This election marks the tenth anniversary of the 2014 election, when voters turfed the Progressive Conservative government of the day, primarily over the issue of fracking for shale gas. This followed years of New Brunswick’s largest protests, petitions with tens of thousands of signatures, province-wide educational tours, expert witness testimony, peaceful blockades, a citizen lawsuit, and, unfortunately, a violent police raid on peaceful Indigenous protesters.

The new government assembled a non-partisan citizen commission, which took public testimony, and reached conclusions leading the government to declare an indefinite moratorium on fracking.

There will be many new voters in the current election, who were just children when the moratorium began ten years ago, or who are recent immigrants, and may be unaware of its importance or history.

Because Premier Higgs continues threatening to lift the moratorium, it is necessary for us to restate the case for keeping it, and explain why, based on ten years of research, the moratorium should become permanent.

In 2014, fracking a single well, required a few millions of litres of fresh water – taken permanently out of the water cycle,

In 2024, fracking a single well can remove and contaminate more than 100 million litres of water.  A developed industry of hundreds or thousands of wells has a giant thirst.

In 2014, we knew that the water was mixed with various combinations of chemicals – many known to be toxic or cancer-causing. Reported incidents claimed that toxic wastewater, and the methane (natural gas) itself, migrated and contaminated ground, surface and drinking water.

By 2024, studies documented cases of water contamination, and numerous lawsuits have been adjudicated, many resulting in multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements.

In 2014, we knew that the toxic wastewater from wells also picked up additional toxins from the deep earth, and was often radioactive. There was no safe way of disposing of it.

In 2024, there remains no safe way to dispose of wastewater. It still is simply pumped back underground under pressure. However, this process has caused thousands of earthquakes in Canada and elsewhere, which have gradually increased in severity with increasing volumes of wastewater. No one knows where the wastewater will end up over time.

In 2014, the idea that fracking itself could cause earthquakes was theoretical.

In 2024, fracking is firmly established as a cause of earthquakes, virtually everywhere it is done. It must be carefully monitored and limited, as the growing strength of quakes threatens important infrastructure.

In 2014, it was obvious that fracking carried potential public health threats via air and water pollution, as hundreds of the chemicals used were known toxins and carcinogens, and hundreds more had never been tested.

In 2024, the number of chemicals and the lack of their testing  is not much changed.  However, numerous studies have associated living near fracking operations and shale gas infrastructure with a host of illnesses and diseases, including premature births, birth defects, childhood leukaemia, asthma and heart disease. Recently, many physician, nursing and public health professional associations called on the provincial government to ban fracking.

In 2014, citizens decided fracking was not worth the risks. They applied the Precautionary Principle, which states that pausing, caution and review are called for when scientific evidence about an environmental or human health hazard is uncertain, and the potential outcomes can be disastrous. Ten years of research and experience have confirmed their wisdom. The moratorium has saved us from many woes.

We also avoided increased costs and stress on our health care system, and escaped the exorbitant costs of road and bridge repairs, abandoned gas wells, and longterm social dislocations that come with all boom and bust industries.

Looming over all of this is the fact that the gas industry leaks methane – which is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming our atmosphere in the near term. Reducing it is our most immediate way to slow climate change. Scientists warn that we should have stopped new gas development in 2021.

Importantly, a continued focus on fracking distracts us from developing an energy plan aligned with the necessary global transition to a clean energy economy.  Europe, for example, gets more of its electricity from wind and solar than from gas and coal, and imported 20% less liquid natural gas (LNG) than last year.

Germany’s climate representative recently told Canadian officials point blank that Europe isn’t interested in our LNG, saying, “All studies show that the market is going to shrink. Germany will be driving forward on renewables, and gas demand will decline.”

Yet, our Premier keeps insisting that the European market is a reason for developing shale gas, to replace their coal plants, apparently unaware that new electricity generation from renewables is even cheaper than running an existing fossil fuel plant.

We are already being left behind in the 21st century economy. A new shale gas industry will worsen our economic prospects and our well-being.

The protections put in place by the Precautionary Principle should be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.  This is also one of the 5 conditions specified in the process for lifting the moratorium.  It is obvious that the science does not support lifting the moratorium, and, in fact, it provides ample evidence that it must be made permanent.

The moratorium has saved our health, environment and infrastructure.  Making it permanent will help us transition to a secure energy future.

Jim Emberger is the spokesperson for the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance (NBASGA).