The challenge grows cons exploration permits gas shale granted in the South of France. Mid-December, MEP José Bové has requested a freeze on surveys under the top Larzac and other departments concerned. On 20 December, three hundred people have decided to establish a "vigilance committee" at a meeting in Saint-Jean-du-Bruel (Aveyron). They asked the municipalities involved to make by-laws - laws similar to anti-GM - to prevent drilling. On 3 January, the council of Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon (Aveyron) voted unanimously to call for a moratorium.
Exploration permits have been issued - in largely unnoticed - in March by the Ministry of Environment. The "permit Nant (Aveyron), attributed to the American Schuepbach Energy, combined with GDF-Suez, allows for 3-year drilling on an area of 4,400 sq km in the region. Total group has obtained a permit to explore for 5 years on an equivalent area, south of Valencia, north of Montpellier, through the Cevennes National Park, and the Swiss group a permit Mouvoil around Alès (Gard). Total has already announced plans to invest 37.8 million euros in this project.
Opponents call a public debate on these projects. "The rush of gas companies in the Cevennes Larzac and suggests a new fundamental struggle for safeguarding our natural resources, "said Bove. Elected officials from Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon believe that the exploitation of shale gas would be a planned destruction of the territory. The deposits sought are located in the heart of freshwater resources Larzac. Extraction methods highly polluting shale gas, hydraulic fragmentation, require multiple boreholes, sometimes very close to homes, and large amounts of water. Apart from the risk of explosions near homes, this operation can cause spills Toxic chemicals and groundwater contamination.
. www.bastamag.net .
JOSE BOSE and gas shale
While there are more promising sectors, the Government of Quebec has chosen to run the vast project of economic exploitation of shale gas in the St Lawrence. Nearly 600 exploration licenses have been granted and others would soon be granted to foreign companies and Canadian drilling in farmland Quebec.
The process is not democratic. Municipalities are private decisions regarding management of their territory: the projects are required. In the best cases, citizens are informed of the imminence of a site; when news reaches them too late to react. Laws and regulations prevent any process of participatory and representative democracy. Quebec, a land of Avatar?
leases land drilling has been signed in secret between private landowners and logging companies, then it is certainly not a private matter but a public affair par excellence for an entire community, municipality, region, citizens of the province. Like the Quebec Association of fight against air pollution (AQLPA), the MRC's six regions have understood the magnitude of the problem and requested a moratorium on the implementation of projects. Have you heard? Turn the page
The choice to develop the sector of shale gas has nothing to do with "sustainable development" that the Quebec government says so proud. This is unacceptable in a 'post-Copenhagen where the international community (apart from some recalcitrant and greedy dinosaurs) is mobilizing to reduce production of greenhouse gas emissions.
Prime Minister Jean Charest, you have shown in the media as a leader in reducing emissions of such gases. How can you then justify the choice of stream of shale gas, in this era where we must turn to alternative energy? The era of pétroculture, the hydrocarbon is over. We must turn the page in a responsible manner. Certainly, ignoring problems related to its exploration and operations, gas companies argue that natural gas is less polluting than oil, it will import an economy and provide an exportable resource. These reasons may lull "gas" population "reassured" by promises of prosperity in the short and medium term and false guarantees of a certain "sustainable development". Simplistic, they do not withstand the overall analysis. Negative effects
known problems and socio-ecological risks posed by the exploitation of gas: use and pollution (heavy metals, chemicals) a staggering amount of water taken from nearby rivers, or possibly even municipal water systems, the use of water treatment plants not designed thereto, the air pollution, landscape degradation, the possibility of sulfur odors and contamination from fumes (hydrogen sulfide can be fatal), noise (drilling, trucking, gas combustion free air), the risk of explosion, property devaluation and loss of quality of life Residents sacrificed on the altar of "economic development" that benefits primarily to foreign and domestic companies, rather than in Quebec society.
United States, in New York State, negative experience has led inter alia to the cessation of operations in part of its territory of one of the largest companies extracting gas from shale, Chesapeake (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/business/energy-environment/28drill.html?_r=1).
But beyond these concerns local and regional arises how begs the question of energy choices in Quebec, a project of economic development sustainable. Nothing lasting here: most wells have a limited life (all will be exhausted in the longer term), the environment is degraded, safety and health of populations will be put at risk the jobs created will be temporary and usually available to a skilled workforce that is not local. And as for the economic dimension of the gas chain, it is reasonable to ask: who will benefit from all this?
Why allocate four million dollars and freeze fees for five years without proper regulation, and especially without any public consultation or even municipalities and MRCs? Why support an industrial use that may come into conflict with agriculture and with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Why support energy development that runs counter to the objectives of several policies and programs which, themselves, were the subject of public consultation?
Geothermal
innovations and green energy are important for Quebec: pathways and networks of production and distribution alternatives known; use patterns also responsible. The government has already committed - so too timid - in some of these sectors. Responsible development of energy implies that certain avenues are released to promote the emergence of those who are more "sustainable." Unsustainable chain of shale gas must be abandoned in favor of such an intensification of support for geothermal energy (beyond the household), combined with a host of other "green" strategies such as biogas, a form of natural gas that regulates environmental problems rather than to ask. Twinned
including the greenhouse (from the perspective of food sovereignty), energy efficiency and energy production managed by the local community, it is green energy to be preferred, like several northern European countries that have shown sustainability. Invest more in developing alternative pathways: they are varied and promising. We can be innovative, as we know so well in other areas in Quebec. What do we to become a model country and avant-garde? Why sell to the Quebec economic colonizers?
Planet heats up and turns storms. The exploitation of shale gas is pushing the objectives of Quebec in sustainable development. Informed citizens have already understood this and worry about it much. A resistance movement began. As in the case of industrial hog farms, the proposed gas-fired Suroît or mine uranium in Sept-Iles ... There was a similar scenario, the same unhealthy dynamic of a certain politico-economic. That too heavy a burden on the backs of citizens to counter the excesses of policymakers so badly lit.
shale gas - PETITION TO SIGN!
Sign the petition: http://bit.ly/aqhmH5
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