up date from wolf about metgasco in supreme court

VIA: Wolf Web
Here’s what I’ve got during the last two days.

I think regardless of what the judges finds, the court case has highlighted the fact that metgasco, and in fact the entire gas industry, has failed in consulting with our community in that they have avoided telling us just what a fully fledged gasfield will be like to live in.
How many times have we heard? “It’s just exploration, just one well?”

They needed to have regular public meetings where they explain the size of the production project, the traffic we can expect, pipelines, compressor stations, man camps, damage to rural roads, fugitive emissions, risks to water, food production, the changing social makeup of the community from family, to fly in fly out workers, from rural based businesses to industrial orientated ones and everything else that goes with building large gasfields.

Because that’s what would happen if these exploration wells are successful, and they’ve had 50 wells now and have a good idea that production will follow exploration. In fact they bank on it.

That would be genuine, effective community consultation. Not the “just one well” line they feed us with. That’s hiding the truth.

They have not done genuine and effective community consultation and can’t do it because that would make the opposition to their projects even bigger than they are now if that’s possible.

The government lawyers have told us how the public concern over the accidents such as Kingfisher and the blockades at Bentley, Doubtful Creek and Glenugie have shown the huge public opposition to gas in our region which tells us how important it’s been to be making our opposition known as we have done and must continue to so so.

The court heard that the blockades in particular have promoted Metgasco and the Government to stress the importance of need to quell the opposition to be able to get their projects started. Metgasco wanted it done by the riot police because Peter Henderson has admitted to have abandoned any hope of further community consultation having any chance of swaying our opinions to allow his gasfields. This is mining by martial law.

This court case has confirmed to me that it’s our job as a community to resist this invasion of unconventional gasfields in every way we can. The government lawyers have argued this quite well, they understand what’s going on, they know what impacts we are to expect, as does the gas industry, it’s important we do as well. Just don’t expect Metgasco or the gas industry to tell you that. They can’t.

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