Mike Smyth: NDP Have a Fracking Problem | The Common Sense Canadian

Read this column by the Province’s Mike Smyth on the NDP’s confusing position on fracking – the controversial natural gas extraction method. (Oct. 21, 2012)

There’s still some mystery around the science and practice of fracking, a system of drilling for natural gas that’s become more and more controversial in recent years.

But trying to figure out where Adrian Dix and the NDP stand on the issue? Well, that’s one of the biggest fracking mysteries in B.C. politics right now.

Let’s start with what fracking – short for “hydraulic fracturing”- is and how it works in B.C.

Fracking involves sinking a deep, narrow well into the earth and bedrock and pumping tonnes of fluids – about 99 per cent water – down the pipe at very high pressures.

The pressurized fluid cracks the rock at the bottom of pipe, releasing the natural gas trapped within it.

This technological breakthrough has opened up a large and rapidly growing natural-gas industry in northeastern B.C., which Premier Christy Clark and her governing Liberals want to expand.

But environmentalists such as David Suzuki are sounding the alarm, warning about toxic waste water, accidental spills, contaminated drinking water and even increased risk of earthquakes.

Some environmental groups have demanded an all-out ban or moratorium on fracking in B.C., which the Liberals say would cost thousands of jobs and billions in investment.

So where does the NDP stand on it? It all depends who you talk to.

John Horgan, the NDP energy critic, said the New Democrats support an expanded natural-gas industry. But he also said an NDP government would set up an independent scientific panel to study the risks.

Could that scientific review lead to a moratorium on fracking in B.C., like the one just imposed in Quebec?

“You can’t rule out anything,” Horgan told me.

“I wouldn’t rule it out if the evidence is we need to do that [a moratorium]. But I haven’t seen that evidence yet, and that’s why we need to have a scientific assessment.”

But while Horgan tells me a fracking moratorium is possible, NDP leader Adrian Dix tells the industry a moratorium won’t happen.

Dix told oil-and-gas executives at a private meeting last month that an NDP government would not introduce a moratorium on frack-ing, leaving them “pleasantly surprised,” government-relations consultant David Heyman reported in a recent newsletter.

When I sought clarification from the NDP, I was referred to environment critic Rob Fleming, who at first assured me there would be no moratorium.

“You’d have to wind the clock back – there’s activity already going on all over,” he said.

But when I inform him that Horgan told me a moratorium is possible, Fleming changed his mind.

“The review comes first, and if it identifies risk from fracking activity that’s not known now, then he [Horgan] is correct,” Fleming said.

For those of you scoring along at home: that’s the NDP leader saying one thing, the energy critic saying another, and the environment critic saying both.