{"id":12071,"date":"2018-08-10T13:32:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T17:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/?p=12071"},"modified":"2023-01-16T13:44:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T18:44:43","slug":"opinion-forages-dans-les-lacs-et-les-rivieres-cen-est-trop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/opinion-forages-dans-les-lacs-et-les-rivieres-cen-est-trop\/","title":{"rendered":"Drilling in lakes and rivers: it\u2019s too much!"},"content":{"rendered":"

52 organizations launch a final appeal to Philippe Couillard to ask him to make an about-face on the exploitation of hydrocarbons<\/h2>\n

OPEN LETTER<\/p>\n

Montreal, August 10, 2018 \u2013 <\/strong>Two of the first actions of the Couillard government, in 2014, were to launch its Action plan on hydrocarbons <\/i>and to allocate 1.25 billion $ to the exploitation of non-renewable resources, including oil and gas. Unless there is a change of heart, one of the last things he will ask before dissolving the National Assembly by the end of August will be the adoption of regulations on hydrocarbons. In doing so, it would kick off the entry into force of the Hydrocarbons Act<\/i> and, thus, to the oil and gas projects in progress in the territory.<\/p>\n

From the start to the end of its mandate, this government will have put all its weight behind the fossil fuel sector, in defiance of science, its climate commitments, social peace and simple economic common sense, while seeking to give a veneer of democratic, scientific and regulatory rigor to a fictitious approach whose purpose was known in advance: to remove all possible obstacles to the establishment of this industry which is harmful to our living environments, to ecosystems and to the climate. Time and again, he has used artifices such as omissions, sophisms and contradictions to try to allow drilling and fracking in Quebec.<\/p>\n

Sad record.<\/p>\n

Presumably, we will therefore soon find ourselves with a regulatory framework which will enshrine the supremacy of private oil and gas interests over huge swaths of Quebec territory \u2013 a legacy of successive governments who gave in to insiders, behind closed doors and for 10 cents per hectare per year<\/a>, real real estate rights on private and public lands in Quebec. These \u201cclaims\u201d today cover almost the entire densely populated part of the Saint-Laurent valley, between the extreme west of Mont\u00e9r\u00e9gie and Quebec, as well as almost the entire Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gasp\u00e9sie.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the second version of the draft regulations published in June prohibits the fracturing of shale, but it defines shale in a very precise manner without it being possible to know which portions of the territory or layers of rock of the Saint-Pierre lowlands. Laurent correspond to the proposed definition. Other rock formations which are likely to contain hydrocarbons \u2013 sandstone, limestone, dolomites \u2013 are not protected by this ban. These formations are present in the Saint-Laurent lowlands, in Gasp\u00e9sie and in the Bas-Saint-Laurent. Neither acid stimulation nor matrix acidification nor any other process is prohibited. Social acceptability, without which the Prime Minister swears that no project will take place, is nowhere mentioned in the Hydrocarbons Act <\/i>or its regulations.<\/p>\n

Final episode and climax of four years of disinformation, on the afternoon of August 3, when the 45 days of consultation on these draft regulations ended, the duty<\/a> revealed that the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources had not told the truth, until then, regarding drilling in lakes and rivers: far from being prohibited, they would be permitted in almost all rivers. water from Quebec.<\/p>\n

This is too much! The cup of distrust overflows, despite the (much too late) step back from the minister, who now says he is willing to \u201ccorrect\u201d the draft regulations.<\/p>\n

Delivering the subsoil of Quebec to private interests who would plunder our territory and our bodies of water, leaving us only crumbs to repair their damage, would be a historic error. An error all the more costly since the vast majority of them are foreign companies, mainly Alberta, which would sell us our own gas and oil for the benefit of their shareholders, before packing up and bequeathing us their abandoned wells.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one minute to midnight, Mr. Couillard. It is time to turn our backs on the exploitation of fossil fuels by throwing the Hydrocarbons Act<\/i> and its draft regulations from another century. The real energy transition will be the major project of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Signatories:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n