[lbo-talk] NDP governments bet on fracking

Marv Gandall marvgand2 at gmail.com
Tue Jan 30 14:19:56 PST 2018


With tar sands exports to the US in long-term decline, Reuters recounts how the energy policy of NDP governments in Alberta and British Columbia is being driven by a shift to natural gas rather than renewables- specifically, by the potential exploitation of the huge Montney and Duvernay shale deposits.

It underlies the support of the Notley and Horgan governments - dismaying to their environmentally-conscious supporters - for the proposed Site C dam essential to fracking operations, for pipelines to carry the fracked gas to BC ports, and for refining facilities to liquify it for tanker transport to China and other Asian markets.

But as the report notes “weak prices in an oversupplied natural gas market have hampered development, along with added costs of shipping from the far-flung fields and limited capacity on pipelines. That makes it harder to compete with producers in (other) shale gas plays…Meanwhile, proposed Canadian liquefied natural gas export terminals on the west coast, which were expected to provide a huge source of demand, have been canceled or stalled due to weak prices.”

Stronger language has been used to describe the economic folly and damaging environmental impact of the direction being pursued by the two NDP governments under pressure from fossil fuel producers and their unions.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-oil-shale-insight/why-canada-is-the-next-frontier-for-shale-oil-idUSKBN1FI0G7



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