Publications

By Janet M Eaton The following announcement that Julia Gillard's Australian government has rejected investor-State dispute settlement in trade agreements [1] is good news for those  who care about good government, democratic legislation and process, fairness, poverty reduction, the environment, and the planet not to mention a sustainable economy. For indeed the  investor state mechanism in Free Trade Agreements [FTAs] has been widely discredited on many fronts.  [For more on Investor state, sometimes referred to as investor privileges, see here.

Save Our Seas and Shores Coalition, Sierra Club Atlantic, and Ecology Action Centre do not recognize the authority of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB) to assess and approve oil and gas exploration and development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Petition to Ban Hydraulic Fracturing in Nova Scotia      To: Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia • Whereas Petroworth Resources Inc. has indicated that it intends to drill for oil along  a seismic line between Lake Ainslie and Mull River in the ‘Ainslie Block’  that extends from St. Rose to Port Hood and east to Whycocomagh in Inverness County, and   • Whereas this exploration may lead to the discovery of shale gas (i.e. natural gas obtained from underground shale formations) as well as oil, and   • Whereas Petroworth Resources Inc has used the technology known as hydraulic fracturing (hereafter referred to as fracking) in the extraction of shale gas in New Brunswick and has not ruled out its utilization in the Ainslie Block, and   • Whereas fracking involves injecting, under very high pressure, millions of litres of water, sand and   proprietary chemicals  into a large number of underground rock formations, and    • Whereas some of these chemicals can lead to serious health problems, ranging from eye and respiratory disorders to cancer, and     • Whereas fracking in other parts of North America has already resulted in the contamination of underground sources of drinking water and other environmental concerns,   • Whereas other rural communities across North America have reacted to these threats to drinking water and human health by demanding an outright ban on the use of fracking,    • We the undersigned, in the interests of all residents of Nova Scotia, demand a province- wide ban on the use of fracking as described above. (DOWNLOAD THE PETITION BELOW TO GATHER SIGNATURES)              

Presented by Larry Lack On behalf of the Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Canada Chapter to the New Brunswick Energy Commission The mandate of the Commission is "to conduct a broad public consultation and report to government on a long-term energy plan. More information on the commission and its mandate is available online." Our report made the following recommendations: conservation should our very first order of business New Brunswick should establish a minimum efficiency for biomass projects encourage and give priority to cooperative, community controlled utilization of our crown lands and other forests create disbursed, well-distributed smaller generating facilities, using diverse power sources including sustainable biomass wood-fired generators and carefully located  wind, wave, tidal and solar energy create incentives for clean renewable energy sources with a policy known as the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) shale gas exploration and development should not be encouraged or permitted in New Brunswick rather than planning on or building for energy exports, New Brunwick should gear its economy around energy self sufficiency for our province and for its diverse regions a healthy, reliable self-sufficient energy system for New Brunswick should and must include net metering of electricity  For more details on these recommendations, please see the complete document, below.