Quebec's shale gas plans started out being a media shambles far worse than in New York or Pennsylvania. The Liberal Party wants shale and seemed to some to be sneaking it in the back door in a sleazy manner that is often politiques as usual in La Belle Province. The opposition Parti Quebecois started out against it entirely but now perhaps sees that while there may be votes in protecting the environment, there are far more in making Quebec as rich as Alberta. Alberta, centre of the Canadian oil and gas industry, has the highest per capita GDP of any state or province in North America. Some of the PQ surely see energy independence as a way to political independence.
Ranged against them are a strange collection of ecologists and confused residents. Uniquely in North America, Quebec already gets all but 4% of it's power from hydro, so here the coal is the enemy story doesn't cut as much ice, and this being October, there's probably plenty of that around already.
The strangest part of the anti shale alliance is the Montreal Gazette, the only Anglophone paper of any size, and one that is generally against everything the PQ wants on long standing principle. The paper has been reading like Gasland on newsprint, surely the most anti-shale paper in North America.
But 80% of Quebec is Francophone and shale companies like Talisman from Alberta are quickly learning French to spread the news.
Couple of interesting tidbits here via Google Translate from this Radio Canada report on a public forum:
There could be more than 250 wells drilled each year in Québec if the Industry shale gas takes off. This was said Tuesday by operations manager in the shales at Talisman Energy, James Fraser, in the work of the Office of Hearings l'environnement (BAPE), Saint-Hyacinthe.
This would exceed the estimate made by the Department of Natural Resources and Wildlife technical paper in the sub-tends the work of the BAPE. "Up to 250 horizontal wells could be
drilled each year in the valley of the St. Lawrence, "the ministry said.
Mr. Fraser noted, however, that one must distinguish between wells and sites of drilling. "There can be up to 12 wells on the same drilling site "He told the commissioners investigating the gas industry
shale. If the industry pierced 250 wells per year, it would therefore result by about 25 drilling sites annually. "It's not huge" in a territory as vast as the St Lawrence, says Fraser.
We know that in Horn River in BC, pads drilling 16 wells can cover up to 8 square miles, which is going to be the only way for shale to take off in most of Europe, interesting to see this figure put out in public. Remember those 25 sites only hang around for about 3 month and then leave something the size of small shipping container. While not forgetting the worst environmental impact: pots and pots and pots of money.
Another noteworthy event was the public information session, at least on the second day, wasn't very crowded. Did they all come the first day, or is this a case as in much of the US of the anti-shale movement getting acres of newsprint, but empty seats?
BAPE attracted only a few dozen people at its second day of hearings. These will continue on Wednesday and, if necessary, Thursday, and the 12 and 13 October at the Convention Centre Saint-Hyacinthe. The public can also participate in videoconferencing in two rooms designed for this purpose in Becancour and St. Edouard de Lotbinière.
