Hydraulic Fracturing = Tidal Wave?
Posted by Site Admin
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. Read Full Post
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
On Nov 15 2010, the Governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories (Government) issued a Final Response to the Joint Review Panel Report for the Mackenzie Gas Project. The JRP had issued its report outlining 176 recommendations and concluded, if all recommendations were adopted, significant adverse effects from the Mackenzie Gas Project would be avoided. 
Recently the BC Government announced a Cabinet shuffle and realignment of some Ministries. One change of note is the new Ministry of Natural Resource Operations (MNRO)