Submission to the Nova Scotia Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing from the North Shore

SUBMISSION TO THE NOVA SCOTIA COMMISSION ON HYDRAULIC FRACTURING FROM THE NORTH SHORE TRANSITION INITIATIVE

TheNorth Shore TransitionInitiativeis a group of concerned and active local residents who have come together with the shared vision of building resilience and sustainability in our communities in response to the challenges of very challenging global change.

Our aim is to encourage community members to become involved, to offer their own ideas and insights, and pitch in to help create a more viable and sustainable future for ourselves, our children and all future generations.

Transitionbuilds resilience in our communities in order to address the many possible global changes in energy supply, unstable economies and climate change in the years ahead, creating stronger, happier communities.

From Transition’s point of view, we ask a number of questions of any new energy development. Here we inquire about hydraulic fracturing:

• Will it exacerbate climate change?YES

• Will it add more fossil fuels to the ‘pile’ of burnable carbon at a time when we need to urgently cutting emissions?YES

• Is it helping us build renewable energy infrastructure?NO

We need incentives for energy efficiencies, widespread re-use strategies and a faster implementation of fossil free energy solutions: solar, tidal, geothermal and wind.

• Does it involve externalities (pollution, environmental damage, unintended impacts) that someone other than the resource-extracting company will have to pay for?YES

We don’t want communities to suffer from these damages and have to pay for negative impacts that the company can walk away from.

• What is the impact on local resilience, both economic and ecological?

Fracking operations would bring very little money into our communities (from the limited employment they might provide); fracking operations might put pressure on the local housing capacity if workers are imported to do the work.Community-owned companies and local businesses keep our money in the community instead of profits returning to shareholders who don’t care about our community. Fracking would weaken our communities’ economic resilience, not strengthen it.

• What is the impact from a social justice perspective?

Fracking operations owned by distant companies would not consider social justice one of their priorities.Local initiatives would be more inclined to address local issues of social justice because community members care about our community.

• Does the decision to use or not use any given fuel or technology include an analysis of the power relationships of those involved? (i.e. the power of large fossil fuel companies to influence government policy)

Fossil fuel companies of all kinds have a privileged relationship to all levels of government. We would encourage investors to divest from all fossil fuels.

In summary, does fracking form a decisive part of the push towards the kind of more socially just, fair, resilient future we so urgently need to see?

NO, there are many better alternatives that would support such a vision. People in our communities are already contributing to such a vision through their investments in the local wild field; their efforts to buy local through our local Farmers’ Market and CSAs and other initiatives. We recently organized a very successful Energy Conservation workshop. All these initiatives do contribute to our communities’ ability to be more prepared for future economic and climate instability. Fracking does not.

For North Shore Transition:

Wendy Johnston

(902) 305-0495