Ahead of a major conference on ‘Canada’s East Coast energy future’, new polling indicates slightly more Nova Scotians are likely to oppose than support BP drilling offshore Nova Scotia.
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.”
News release: Days after BP spilled drilling mud offshore of Nova Scotia, more than 25 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Canadians have sent an open letter calling on Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna to halt BP’s offshore drilling near Sable Island National Park Reserve. The letter calls on McKenna to revisit the approval of BP’s application in light of new expert evidence that the project’s risks were not fully assessed.
News release: Protesters will form a river that will travel from Ottawa City Hall to flood the Office of the Prime Minister to demand a permanent end to BP’s offshore drilling in Nova Scotia and demand action to protect water, not oil.
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.
All you ever wanted to know about offshore drilling but were afraid to ask, courtesy of the folks at the Campaign to Protect Offshore Nova Scotia. Our longest read ever, but also one of our most important ones.
Premier McNeil seems to think that Oil and Gas development is a perfect fit with a Marine Protected Area. Just as he probably thinks that it is appropriate to clearcut a game sanctuary. (Liscombe).
Environmental activists will rally Friday April 20. 12 Noon, at Halifax Convention Centre where federal Liberals are holding their convention. This time the issue is not the Kinder Morgan pipeline, but oil giant BP’s plan to drill up to 7 wells off the south-west coast of Nova Scotia.
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.