I attended an excellent seminar on Hydraulic Fracturing in October. It was put on by Wally Braul with Fraser Milner Casgrain (FMC) and had a number of speakers including William Lozier and Ed Hinchey of Environmental Resources Management as well as Alex MacWiliam of FMC. Most notably was a presentation by Barclay Nicholson who is a Partner with Fulbright and Jaworski LLP from Houston.

Barclay's legal practice has focused on Hydraulic Fracturing (frac'ing) since this optimization practice began to rise as an issue in 2009. Today in the United States, 38 of 50 States now have regulations dealing with Hydraulic Fracturing and areas of the US are inundated with anti-frac'ing messaging (including a  number of commercials by well-known celebrities), anti-frac'ing web sites and a large number of civil lawsuits and State and Federal regulatory actions. Barclay believes there is a Tidal Wave about to crash in Canada in the next few years focused on the issue of Frac'ing. Click here to see an analysis of current US Litigation involving hydraulic fracturing. 

At the heart of the Frac'ing controversy is the alleged impact on water quality and increasing attention from the media, the Environmental Protection Agency, Congress and State and Federal agencies. This, fueled by anti-frac'ing messages like the Fracking Song on Youtube and I Love My NY Water, has caused great concern for people in the US. Western Canadians are no strangers to hydraulic fracturing, but its use is more and more prevalent as we try to coax oil and gas from tighter reservoirs.

This issue reminds me of the anti-oilsands campaigns that Canada has been subjected to in the last few years, where large amounts of US money is being spent on anti-oilsands messaging and pseudo-science and the information being spread has largely been unanswered by the industry and government until it has reached a state where it is too large and too vocal to be ignored any longer.

What is needed here is that we learn from past lessons and get out in front of this issue, obtain a full understanding and communicate the real risks of hydraulic fracturing. this is where solid grass-roots consultation with directly affected stakeholders and interested parties must be undertaken with truth and integrity. We need to get in front of it, not with Rap songs and cameos from Ethan Hawke, but with meaningful dialogue between project proponents and potentially impacted stakeholders.

Paul Anderson 

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A couple days ago, Enbridge hosted a Summit with Business and Aboriginal leaders from most of the First Nations communities along the proposed route for its Northern Gateway Pipeline Project. The Summit was attended by over 350 people and there was keen interest from both businesses and communities about the opportunities offered by the Project. Northern Gateway is committed to a goal of $300 million in Aboriginal procurement and services contracts associated with construction. During the Summit, Northern Gateway announced it had committed to $1.5 million in training and education to be avavilable with matching funding expected from both provincial governments (BC & Alberta) and Federal sources. The project is also offering Aboriginal equity ownership and other project inducements which, in total, set the expected benefits to Aboriginal communities at $1 billion. 

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On November 2 2010, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) held a Process Meeting to identify and address issues regarding the Heartland Transmission Project Application. The Process Meeting was held in Edmonton, the purpose to identify potential issues and as well establish a Pre-hearing Schedule for the Public Hearing.  

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Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (ASRD) has changed the approval system for upstream oil and gas dispositions.  This change came in response to a 2009 review of Area Operating Agreements, and is referred to as the new Enhanced Approval Process (EAP) which came into practice on September 1, 2010.  The new EAP applies to all upstream oil and gas activities on Alberta’s public lands. It covers both conventional and unconventional oil and gas developments, but excludes exploration as well as mineable and in-situ oil sands development. 

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On Oct 13 2010 the NEB announced that a Detailed Route Hearing will be held in relation to the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXLP) Project. The Detailed Route Hearing would focus on the Alberta Section, specifically the lands related to a particular landowner. 

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