Review could recommend lifting Nova Scotia’s fracking moratorium : Wheeler
Posted Jul 23, 2014 08:47:58 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
AMHERST, N.S. – The leader of an independent review of hydraulic fracturing in Nova Scotia says the provincial government should receive its report next month and it’s not likely to recommend a continuation of the province’s moratorium on the practice.
David Wheeler spoke to those gathered for a public consultation meeting at Amherst Town Hall on Tuesday.
Wheeler, the president of Cape Breton University, says continuing the moratorium will be a political decision, and the goal of the review is to help inform those decisions.
He says several recommendations will be in the report, all with the proviso that the review panel is “not saying this activity should proceed now in our province.”
If foundational research proceeds far enough, and if communities welcome the prospect of fracking, the panel will recommend seismic testing and exploration once “full, prior and informed community consent is in place.”
Not everyone in attendance at the meeting was convinced the panel would come out on the side of environmental protection, with many pleading with Wheeler to recommend continuation of the moratorium, which has been in place in Nova Scotia since 2012.
