Earlier this month anti-capitalist activist Chelsea Fougere, a member of the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia, took part in a series of public panels on the risks of offshore drilling in Halifax and Mahone Bay. This is her powerful opening statement.
Cory Levander writes about Wednesday’s panel in Mahone Bay about offshore oil exploration. Not worth the risk, was the consensus, ““You can’t eat oil. You can’t eat drilling mud… But you can eat lobster.”
Feeling the pressure of increased public scrutiny, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) met this afternoon with municipal councillors from western Nova Scotia, hoping to convince them that offshore oil exploration is safe. Don’t be fooled, says Marion Moore, of the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia. “I would tell them that they’re being fed a big story from an organization that is completely captured by the oil industry,” Moore tells the Nova Scotia Advocate.
“We are writing to you on behalf of the Offshore Alliance to urgently call on the Federal Government, in concert with the Government of Nova Scotia, to undertake a public inquiry into the environmental, socio-economic, and other impacts of offshore oil and gas exploration in Nova Scotia’s Offshore.”
BP reported today that it spilled 136 000L of drilling mud offshore Nova Scotia during the first of seven of its ultra deepwater wells. The Council of Canadians has been raising the many severe risks of this project for years.
News release: The Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia (CPONS) calls for an open public meeting with media present so all Nova Scotians can hear clearly from the Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB) the rationale behind their project review and licensing process.
As we write this the BP commissioned rig West Aquarius is on its way to the Scotian Shelf to start exploratory drilling for oil, something John Davis, director of the Clean Ocean Action Committee, very much wished wouldn’t happen. We interviewed Davis about how federal and provincial regulators are way too close to the oil and gas industry, how environmental and fisheries groups are ignored, and why we should care about what happens on the Scotian Shelf.
News release: The BP commissioned rig West Aquarius is now en route to drill offshore, despite not having final approval from the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB).
We had a long chat with Colin Sproul, spokesperson for the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association, about the risks of offshore drilling , why we should care about something so (relatively) distant, and how to get Nova Scotians to realize what’s at stake.
News release by the Offshore Alliance: “Instead of holding public hearings, which should be required before industry projects are given the go-ahead, the CNSOPB through its PR staff suggested on short notice a facilitated 45 minute “sharing circle” for all 8-12 invited “stakeholder groups.”