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Written by http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/bad-gas-coalbed-methane-bc
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Tuesday, 12 January 2010 |
Excerpt:
In 2000, the low and relatively stable price of natural gas went
apeshit, okay, okay, broke out of its long-term sleepy trend. Natural
gas is now a very hot and volatile commodity in North America.
Investment dollars flooded into conventional natural gas plays in BC.
The Liberal government, elected in 2001, brought an unabashedly
fond-of-fossil fuels attitude to Victoria. An early initiative was to
kick-start CBM activity in BC. The package looked very attractive to
industry - high commodity prices, a give-away royalty deal, and fewer
regulatory impediments by the week. No pesky and expensive
environmental assessments. The icing on the cake was a team from the
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources (MEMPR) who were
available on demand to overcome local resistance.
Resistance which, they would soon discover, would be intense. Wherever
the Ministry and proponents showed up, local concerns followed - or
worse, had preceded them. The Ministry frequently found itself playing
catch-up. Farmers and ranchers, landowners, residents and community
leaders, native and non-native - the rejection of CBM development was
broadly based. And soundly based on its record in North America.
For some of BC's great little communities, coal mining is an essential
and dramatic chapter of their settlement history - Courtenay, Nanaimo,
Fernie, for example. Others suddenly discovered the misfortune of
sitting on top of a coalfield - Telkwa, Hat Creek, Hudson's Hope, Merritt.
They all pushed back. All did their own investigations. All expressed
concerns to government. The propaganda team from the Ministry was on the
road continuously, seeking out private meetings with stakeholders and
local decision-makers, avoiding public meetings where it could, and
suffering the indignities of an angry public where it could not be avoided.
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