FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        PRESS RELEASE                        APRIL 3, 2012

FREDERICTON SHALE GAS PARADE LAUNCHES MUNICIPAL BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN

Fredericton, N.B., Canada - The movement against shale gas development is moving into the municipalities. Citizens in Fredericton are asking their municipal candidates for Mayor and Councilors to take a stand on protecting the city’s air and water.  To launch this election initiative, a parade of cars and trucks, followed by bicycles and pedestrians, will travel through downtown Fredericton this Thursday, April 5th at 12 noon.

People will gather at the parking lot beside the Old Burial Grounds at 51 Woodstock Road. The action will begin at 12 noon. The route will proceed down King Street, around the New Brunswick Legislature, and then up Queen Street to Fredericton City Hall. Vehicles and people will be decked out in blue balloons, blue ribbons, blue streamers, blue water jugs, and lots of signs. This parade will be the official launch of the Blue Ribbon Campaign here in Fredericton.

The Blue Ribbon Campaign is a grassroots action that is spreading to villages, towns, and cities across New Brunswick. With the growing enthusiasm of this campaign, organizers foresee similar actions throughout New Brunswick during the lead-up to municipal elections. The colour blue symbolizes that citizens will be voting for the Mayor and Councilor candidates who include in their platform a Ban or Moratorium on shale gas development.  On May 14th we will be voting for change.  Elected representatives and candidates will be invited to join the parade and publicly demonstrate that they will stand up to protect our air and water.

“The cost to human health, our air and water, our global climate, and our local economy are simply too great to remain quiet. Regulations are unable to protect us from the certainty of air pollution in the low-lying valley of Fredericton. And the aquifer from which we draw our drinking water extends far outside the Fredericton city limits into large tracts of shale gas exploration areas”, says Fredericton resident Sarah Boucher. “It is time for health and business organizations, churches, and politicians to speak up and join the largest grassroots movement that New Brunswick has ever seen.”

“Politics has no place in human health and safety. Almost all municipalities in New Brunswick have not taken an official stand on shale gas.  Pressure from citizens has caused Minto, Hampton, Sackville, and Sussex Corner to hold Council votes and all four now have a moratorium or ban in place. It is time for Fredericton to do the same”, says Fredericton resident Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy.

Low turnout in most municipal elections means that seats can be won or lost by only a few hundred votes or less. Many seats are won by acclamation.  In the last Quadrennial Municipal Elections on May 12, 2008, the average voter turnout was forty-eight percent for contested municipal and rural community elections (a low of twenty-eight percent and a high of seventy-seven percent).  One hundred and seventy candidates (170) ran for one hundred and four mayoral (104) positions; Eight hundred and eighty-nine (889) candidates ran for five hundred and thirty-seven (537) council positions; Fifty-three (53) mayors and one hundred and ten (110) councilors were elected by acclamation.

“Let's put our local councilors on notice that they need to speak up and protect our air and water,” says organizer Mark D’Arcy. “Election date is May 14, 2012.”

Media Contacts:

Mark D’Arcy
Tel. 506 454 5119
markandcaroline@gmail.com

Terry Wishart
Tel. 506 238 4001
t.wishart@banfrackingnb.ca

PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release November 22, 2011

 Shale Gas Protest Rally in Fredericton November 23^rd

 FREDERICTON NB ---- A rally at the Provincial Legislature will take place on November 23^rd to protest unconventional shale gas development in New Brunswick.

Citizens and community groups from throughout New Brunswick will converge on Fredericton on Wednesday, November 23^rd at the opening session of the New Brunswick Legislature with their message to the Alward Government that the exploration and extraction of natural gas from shale using horizontal drilling in combination with slick water hydraulic fracturing will not be tolerated.

Members of CUPE locals from throughout the province will be joining industry opponents in solidarity on Wednesday. At their November 3^rd 2011 National Convention, CUPE adopted Resolution No.96, which expressly states that all levels of government must put an end to shale gas development because the industry, “has failed to demonstrate that such development would not have serious consequences for the environment and the health of citizens”; and governments being “clearly unprepared for this issue, and have done a poor job of responding to public concerns”.

New Brunswickers from all over the province denounce the development of an unconventional shale gas industry. The process used to extract unconventional shale gas is less than 20 years old. It is the undisputed cause of ecological damage and long-term economic net debt, earthquakes, air and noise pollution, infrastructure degradation and the profligate use and irreversible poisoning of trillions of litres of fresh water. It leaves deleterious impacts on the lives and health of humans and other animals in its wake.

“The civic duty of New Brunswick residents does not require that they be guinea pigs in anyone's science experiments”, states Jim Emberger, spokesperson for the Taymouth Community Association.

The promise of large-scale job creation appears over-exaggerated. In a recent presentation at the University of New Brunswick on October 22, 2011, Mr. Calvin Tillman, former mayor of Dish, Texas mentioned that since this industry requires highly skilled workers, most will be imported from outside the province to enable the industry to be more competitive at a time when stock market prices for natural gas are low.

Sixty residents in Penobsquis have lost their well water and have experienced ground subsidence allegedly from potash mining and the added burden of shale gas drilling in their rural community. Some who want to move away have been unable to sell their homes. We ask, where is justice for the people of Penobsquis? Will regulations serve anyone when more things go wrong? A point made clear in the recent documentary by Rob Turgeon, ‘Be… Without Water’. (www.youtube.com/user/robfturgeon#p/a/u/1/aK0NMTMXHSw)

Events on Wednesday, November 23^rd are scheduled to begin with a gathering at the Provincial Legislature at 12:00 noon. A program with music and speakers will begin at 12:45 pm.

Media Contacts:

DR. ANTHONY INGRAFFEA TO SPEAK IN MONCTON ON NOV.  30 AND IN HAMPTON ON DEC. 1.

The following includes an excerpt from the Nov. 2011 issue of Scientific American, in The Truth About Fracking.

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea will be presenting  in Moncton, November 30th at the Capitol Theatre and at Hampton High School on Thursday, Dec.  1st at 7:00 p.m.. He will explore myths and realities of large-scale development of unconventional natural gas resources.

On a local scale, these concern geological aspects and the resulting use of directional drilling, high-volume, slickwater,hydraulic fracturing, multi-well pad arrangements and the impacts of these technologies on waste production and disposal.  On a global scale,  he will explore  the cumulative impact on greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere.   Dr. Ingraffea is known for his clear and straight-forward explanations of these rather complex processes using visual displays and down to earth language.

Dr. Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering and a Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University.  He participated in research and development for the oil and gas industry for 25 years, specializing in hydraulic fracture simulation and pipeline safety and twice won the National Research Council/U.S. National Committee for Rock Mechanics Award for Research in Rock Mechanics.

Dr. Ingraffea became a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1991;  he became Co-Editor-in-Chief of Engineering Fracture Mechanics in 2005;  he won ASTM’s George Irwin Award for outstanding research in fracture mechanics in 2006;  and in 2009,  he was named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture.  Recently,  he has been deeply engaged in informal education regarding the topic of this lecture with over 50 public presentations over the last year.

This event is part of the Shale Gas Speaker Series and is sponsored by CCNB Action and New Brunswick Shale Gas Alliance Member Groups throughout the Province.

This is a unique opportunity to become well informed about the most controversial issue facing New Brunswickers today.

Contact info: 

Carl Wolpin:  crwolpin@xplornet.com  832-7827

Chris Rendell:  appsolca@yahoo.ca 832-4660

October 11, 2011 Hampton NB -- Hampton Town Council received a standing ovation this evening after they voted unanimously to reject Windsor Energy’s request to allow thumper trucks to conduct seismic testing within town limits.

Thanksgiving dinner plans with families were interrupted for many Hampton residents on Sunday when geophone equipment used for seismic testing was discovered along a lengthy stretch of Highway One, including within the Town of Hampton and Town of Quispamsis limits. The thumper trucks were also parked nearby and were set to go.

Windsor Energy previously made a request to Hampton Town Council to allow thumper trucks within town limits. They were notified council would make a decision at their regular council meeting this evening. Permission had not been granted by the town, yet the company appeared ready to start seismic testing without the required approval.

Hampton residents quickly organized a peaceful demonstration at the Town of Hampton – It’s Our Nature sign on Highway One this afternoon. Approximately 70 people participated in the demonstration to show Windsor Energy they did not have permission to conduct seismic testing. During the demonstration, protestors received word the company had decided not to “thump” the section of highway going through Hampton.

However seismic testing did take place along Highway One within Quispamsis Town limits on Monday without their councilors or mayor’s knowledge or permission.

Hampton Council Chambers were overflowing this evening with town residents concerned about seismic testing taking place within their community. Carl Wolpin from the group Hampton Water First, addressed council to thank them for supporting the moratorium on shale gas exploration at the recent provincial meeting of New Brunswick Municipalities. This was met with a standing ovation and drawn out applause from those in attendance.

Council member Peter Behr moved that Windsor Energy’s request be denied stating that he received a great deal of feedback from community residents. Not a single person he spoke with was supportive of seismic testing. He went on to say that since he was elected to represent the people, it was the right thing to deny the request. The motion was quickly seconded. One of the councilors noted that although they do not have control over what happens in the rest of the province, they do have control over what happens within Hampton town limits.

Contact:  Hampton Water First

Carl Wolpin:  crwolpin@xplornet.com  832-7827

Chris Rendell:  appsolca@yahoo.ca 832-4660

NB Groups Want The Provincial Government To Heed Their Message
For Immediate Release
September 16, 2011

Moncton -- On Saturday, September 17, the anti-shale gas network of citizens have planned
another march for New Brunswickers to say “NO!” to shale gas in the downtown core of
Moncton.

More than 2 dozen groups from around the province, from places like Cornhill, Sackville,
Taymouth and Hampton, recently announced the network they’ve formed to stop shale gas
development in New Brunswick, and their next step is to hold another rally to continue sending
their message to the provincial government that the shale gas industry is not welcome here.

This grassroots movement has committed itself to informing their fellow New Brunswickers of
the dangers of shale gas. “It’s shameful that our government has not honestly engaged and
informed its citizens of the dangers of this industry,” says Debra Hopper, a spokesperson for Our
Environment, Our Choice, Notre Environnement, Notre Choix. “We have an intelligent group
here. We have done our homework; now the government needs to do the same. It has been
reading off of cheat sheets provided by industry. The same tired lines that we’re all sick of
hearing. The people of New Brunswick have a right to know what we are really facing.”

“We ask that our government do its job in protecting our life sustaining resources against an
industry that is advancing at an accelerated rate and that threatens our quality of life for
generations to come. Once the damages are done, there is no return,” says Patricia Léger,
spokesperson for Memramcook Action. “We cannot expect industry to warn us of the dangers of
this toxic method of extracting natural gas and our government seems to only be listening to
industry.”

In our ongoing effort to get the facts about the dangers of shale gas drilling out into the open, a
second march is being held this time in Moncton.  It will begin at 12:00 noon at the Hal Betts
Ball Fields – Moncton SportPlex, located at 250 Assomption Blvd at the corner of Vaughn
Harvey. Protesters will march along Vaughn Harvey Blvd, and down Main Street before
congregating at Moncton City Hall, next to SWN Offices.  We invite all water drinkers and air
breathers to join us in our PEACEFUL display of democracy in action. 

At City Hall, there will be speakers from various groups and communities from across the
province, including the Youth Environmental Action Network, Elsipogtog First Nation, Friends
of Mount Carleton, the Maliseet Grand Council, and Ban Fracking NB. 

Media Contacts:
Our Environment, Our Choice, Notre Envrionnement, Notre Choix, Denise Melanson: 523-9467
Quality of Life Initiative, Otty Forgrave: 839-2326
CCNB Action, Stephanie Merrill: 261-8317
Ban Fracking NB, Terri Telasco: 866-7658
New Brunswickers Against Fracking, Mary de La Valette: 369-1995
Council of Canadians, St. John Chapter, Carol Ring: 847-0953
Grand Lake Watershed Guardians, Amy Sullivan: 339-1980 or 339-5324
Sierra Club Atlantic, Hazel Richardson: 452-8915

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                        PRESS RELEASE                        APRIL 3, 2012

FREDERICTON SHALE GAS PARADE LAUNCHES MUNICIPAL BLUE RIBBON CAMPAIGN

Fredericton, N.B., Canada - The movement against shale gas development is moving into the municipalities. Citizens in Fredericton are asking their municipal candidates for Mayor and Councilors to take a stand on protecting the city’s air and water.  To launch this election initiative, a parade of cars and trucks, followed by bicycles and pedestrians, will travel through downtown Fredericton this Thursday, April 5th at 12 noon.

People will gather at the parking lot beside the Old Burial Grounds at 51 Woodstock Road. The action will begin at 12 noon. The route will proceed down King Street, around the New Brunswick Legislature, and then up Queen Street to Fredericton City Hall. Vehicles and people will be decked out in blue balloons, blue ribbons, blue streamers, blue water jugs, and lots of signs. This parade will be the official launch of the Blue Ribbon Campaign here in Fredericton.

The Blue Ribbon Campaign is a grassroots action that is spreading to villages, towns, and cities across New Brunswick. With the growing enthusiasm of this campaign, organizers foresee similar actions throughout New Brunswick during the lead-up to municipal elections. The colour blue symbolizes that citizens will be voting for the Mayor and Councilor candidates who include in their platform a Ban or Moratorium on shale gas development.  On May 14th we will be voting for change.  Elected representatives and candidates will be invited to join the parade and publicly demonstrate that they will stand up to protect our air and water.

“The cost to human health, our air and water, our global climate, and our local economy are simply too great to remain quiet. Regulations are unable to protect us from the certainty of air pollution in the low-lying valley of Fredericton. And the aquifer from which we draw our drinking water extends far outside the Fredericton city limits into large tracts of shale gas exploration areas”, says Fredericton resident Sarah Boucher. “It is time for health and business organizations, churches, and politicians to speak up and join the largest grassroots movement that New Brunswick has ever seen.”

“Politics has no place in human health and safety. Almost all municipalities in New Brunswick have not taken an official stand on shale gas.  Pressure from citizens has caused Minto, Hampton, Sackville, and Sussex Corner to hold Council votes and all four now have a moratorium or ban in place. It is time for Fredericton to do the same”, says Fredericton resident Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy.

Low turnout in most municipal elections means that seats can be won or lost by only a few hundred votes or less. Many seats are won by acclamation.  In the last Quadrennial Municipal Elections on May 12, 2008, the average voter turnout was forty-eight percent for contested municipal and rural community elections (a low of twenty-eight percent and a high of seventy-seven percent).  One hundred and seventy candidates (170) ran for one hundred and four mayoral (104) positions; Eight hundred and eighty-nine (889) candidates ran for five hundred and thirty-seven (537) council positions; Fifty-three (53) mayors and one hundred and ten (110) councilors were elected by acclamation.

“Let's put our local councilors on notice that they need to speak up and protect our air and water,” says organizer Mark D’Arcy. “Election date is May 14, 2012.”

Media Contacts:

Mark D’Arcy
Tel. 506 454 5119
markandcaroline@gmail.com

Terry Wishart
Tel. 506 238 4001
t.wishart@banfrackingnb.ca

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release                  December 8, 2011

N.B. Shale Gas Opposition Alliance Announces Text Message Action

The texting initiative was planned and conceived in partnership with the Council of Canadians. With its ease of use and quick result, text messaging will allow New Brunswickers to express their opinion directly to our elected members from the comfort of their own homes.

The letter contained in the text message sent to New Brunswick legislators includes arguments championed by economists, geologists, engineers and former industry insiders which contradict industry and government speaking points centred around job creation, royalty revenues and public benefits. They include the following:

• The need for industry to import skilled workers from outside New Brunswick as has been happening in the US and western Canada

• Inflated royalty payments which do not take into consideration increased health care costs due to the migration of carcinogenic materials into our air, water and the land on which we live

• Reduced tax revenues from decreased property assessments and reductions in new home construction in areas ear-marked for shale gas development

• Reduced tax revenues as a result of citizens and visitors to the province seeking to escape an ever-increasing level of industrialization and the resulting pollution

• Increased road and bridge repair expenditures in counties where existing infrastructure was not engineered to withstand tens of thousands of truckloads of water, waste water, and methane gas

The Text Message Action Campaign is scheduled to go on indefinitely. Organizers invite New Brunswickers to take this opportunity to make their voice heard, especially in light of the Alward Government’s decision to not engage in consultations with the public and its intention to continue on a path towards shale gas production.

Media Contacts:

DR. ANTHONY INGRAFFEA TO SPEAK IN MONCTON ON NOV.  30 AND IN HAMPTON ON DEC. 1.

The following includes an excerpt from the Nov. 2011 issue of Scientific American, in The Truth About Fracking.

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea will be presenting  in Moncton, November 30th at the Capitol Theatre and at Hampton High School on Thursday, Dec.  1st at 7:00 p.m.. He will explore myths and realities of large-scale development of unconventional natural gas resources.

On a local scale, these concern geological aspects and the resulting use of directional drilling, high-volume, slickwater,hydraulic fracturing, multi-well pad arrangements and the impacts of these technologies on waste production and disposal.  On a global scale,  he will explore  the cumulative impact on greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere.   Dr. Ingraffea is known for his clear and straight-forward explanations of these rather complex processes using visual displays and down to earth language.

Dr. Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering and a Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University.  He participated in research and development for the oil and gas industry for 25 years, specializing in hydraulic fracture simulation and pipeline safety and twice won the National Research Council/U.S. National Committee for Rock Mechanics Award for Research in Rock Mechanics.

Dr. Ingraffea became a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1991;  he became Co-Editor-in-Chief of Engineering Fracture Mechanics in 2005;  he won ASTM’s George Irwin Award for outstanding research in fracture mechanics in 2006;  and in 2009,  he was named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture.  Recently,  he has been deeply engaged in informal education regarding the topic of this lecture with over 50 public presentations over the last year.

This event is part of the Shale Gas Speaker Series and is sponsored by CCNB Action and New Brunswick Shale Gas Alliance Member Groups throughout the Province.

This is a unique opportunity to become well informed about the most controversial issue facing New Brunswickers today.

Contact info: 

Carl Wolpin:  crwolpin@xplornet.com  832-7827

Chris Rendell:  appsolca@yahoo.ca 832-4660

This just in...

PRESS RELEASE: For Immediate Release November 22, 2011

 Shale Gas Protest Rally in Fredericton November 23^rd

 FREDERICTON NB ---- A rally at the Provincial Legislature will take place on November 23^rd to protest unconventional shale gas development in New Brunswick.

Citizens and community groups from throughout New Brunswick will converge on Fredericton on Wednesday, November 23^rd at the opening session of the New Brunswick Legislature with their message to the Alward Government that the exploration and extraction of natural gas from shale using horizontal drilling in combination with slick water hydraulic fracturing will not be tolerated.

Members of CUPE locals from throughout the province will be joining industry opponents in solidarity on Wednesday. At their November 3^rd 2011 National Convention, CUPE adopted Resolution No.96, which expressly states that all levels of government must put an end to shale gas development because the industry, “has failed to demonstrate that such development would not have serious consequences for the environment and the health of citizens”; and governments being “clearly unprepared for this issue, and have done a poor job of responding to public concerns”.

New Brunswickers from all over the province denounce the development of an unconventional shale gas industry. The process used to extract unconventional shale gas is less than 20 years old. It is the undisputed cause of ecological damage and long-term economic net debt, earthquakes, air and noise pollution, infrastructure degradation and the profligate use and irreversible poisoning of trillions of litres of fresh water. It leaves deleterious impacts on the lives and health of humans and other animals in its wake.

“The civic duty of New Brunswick residents does not require that they be guinea pigs in anyone's science experiments”, states Jim Emberger, spokesperson for the Taymouth Community Association.

The promise of large-scale job creation appears over-exaggerated. In a recent presentation at the University of New Brunswick on October 22, 2011, Mr. Calvin Tillman, former mayor of Dish, Texas mentioned that since this industry requires highly skilled workers, most will be imported from outside the province to enable the industry to be more competitive at a time when stock market prices for natural gas are low.

Sixty residents in Penobsquis have lost their well water and have experienced ground subsidence allegedly from potash mining and the added burden of shale gas drilling in their rural community. Some who want to move away have been unable to sell their homes. We ask, where is justice for the people of Penobsquis? Will regulations serve anyone when more things go wrong? A point made clear in the recent documentary by Rob Turgeon, ‘Be… Without Water’. (www.youtube.com/user/robfturgeon#p/a/u/1/aK0NMTMXHSw)

Events on Wednesday, November 23^rd are scheduled to begin with a gathering at the Provincial Legislature at 12:00 noon. A program with music and speakers will begin at 12:45 pm.

Media Contacts: