A new report on an industry billed as the province’s “new prosperity
driver” warns that subsidies to shale gas companies now threaten
provincial water supplies, the reduction of ocean acidifying emissions
as well the province’s hydro electric budget.
The comprehensive 53 page report
for the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives and the Climate Justice
Project also warns that shale gas industry has created as many complex
liabilities for the owners of the resource (British Columbians) as
Alberta’s vast bitumen deposits in the oil sands.
“Shale gas is the natural gas equivalent of Alberta’s tar
sands oil. Both require tremendous amounts of water and energy to
produce,” says Ben Parfitt, the report’s author and a long-time resource
analyst. “Why is B.C. subsidizing a polluting industry instead of
developing a true green jobs plan?”
In fact the province’s shale gas industry could produce
as many as 22 million tonnes of CO2 a year. In contrast current oil
sands production, the nation’s largest growing source of ocean
acidifying emissions, produces and vents 49 million tonnes a year.
The province’s shale gas industry currently employs less
than one per cent of the population and generates volatile revenue for
the provincial government that have fallen from nearly $4-billion a year
to less than $500-million due to low natural gas prices.
In fact the government could now be subsidizing the
industry with water, energy, roads and low royalties at a public cost
much higher than earned public revenues from shale gas production.
No comments:
Post a Comment