Premier's Oil and Gas Council

Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 10:37:28 -0300 (ADT)
From: Mark Butler <ar427@chebucto.ns.ca>
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects









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

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects