Nova Scotia's Bill 6 to ban high-volume tracking

摘要

Whatever reserves of shale gas and oil lie beneath the ground in Nova Scotia will remain there, unexplored and unexploited, until the provincial Legislature says otherwise. Nova Scotia Minister of Energy Andrew Younger has come through on his promise to introduce legislation banning high-volume hydraulic fracturing (tracking) in the province. Bill 6, the Petroleum Resources Amendment Act, was one of the first Bills put forward by the government in the fall 2014 session, receiving first reading on September 30, 2014. Younger had promised a legislative ban less than one week after the release of an exhaustive government-commissioned report on a wide range of issues related to tracking led by Cape Breton University President Dr. David Wheeler. The legislative ban in Nova Scotia is a first for Canada. It is the second major blow dealt the tracking industry in Atlantic Canada in recent weeks.