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For Immediate Release June 6, 2000 Wrong Task for Energy Council On Friday the Premier established a 16 member Energy Council made up primarily of oil company representatives, oil and gas contractors, and university professors who have demonstrated a strong bias toward the petroleum industry. A social worker, a representative from the fishing industry, and a representative from the Union of N.S. Municipalities are the only individuals on the Council without strong ties to the oil and gas industry. The CouncilUs first task is to advise the government on how the oil industry can conduct its activities in a way which is more sensitive to other interests, in particular the fishery. Says Mark Butler, Marine Coordinator at EAC, Rthe situation we have here is the oil and gas industry advising the government on how the oil and gas industry should conduct itself vis-a-vis other industries and the environment--a situation which seems a little ridiculous and totally inappropriate.S If the government wants a Petroleum Council that is its prerogative, but donUt suggest that this a multi-stakeholder group when it is overwhelmingly a single stakeholder group and certainly do not give it a task that it is not qualified to do. Norman Miller of Corridor Resources is one of the representatives on the Council. This is ironic because Corridor Resources is holder of an exploration licence off Western Cape Breton, and is part of a process which is a textbook case of how to be insensitive, not sensitive, to other interests. The Framework for the Council states that it will include representatives from the environmental community of interest. In the eyes of the environmental community we donUt see anyone on this Council who can offer an independent analysis on sensitive areas or other environmental issues. We wonder why the government created this Council. The petroleum industry already has the ear of the Premier and the Minister of Economic Development. In addition, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board and the N.S. Petroleum Directorate, the main regulators of oil and gas activity in the province, are already facilitating and promoting oil and gas development. For more information contact Mark Butler, Marine Coordinator, Ecology Action Centre at 429-2202 -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Sponsors: Chebucto Community Net http://www.chebucto.ns.ca Sierra Club - Chebucto Group http://www.sierraclub.ca Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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