Originally published in the Chronicle Herald on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022
We’ve been here before.
Nova Scotians and their families want proven energy solutions that are clean, affordable and reliable, and we’ve made that known.
We made it known when we banned fracking in our province. We made it known when over 10,000 people took to the streets of Halifax to demand action on climate change. We made it known when we fought for decades against dangerous, short-sighted fossil-fuel projects and the threat they posed to our health and our climate.
It seems that Pieridae Energy and their supporters are bad listeners.
Because here they are, once again trying to convince our government to loosen restrictions and invest in their plans to build massive liquified natural gas (LNG) infrastructure in Atlantic Canada. The projects — including a revival of the Goldboro LNG terminal in Nova Scotia — would mean more pipelines, more spills, more tanker traffic along our coasts and more threats to our climate, our ecosystems and our communities.
Pieridae doesn’t appear to be particularly good at math, either. Proponents of the suddenly revived Goldboro LNG project like to say that it will save Europe from skyrocketing gas prices, helping countries like Germany free themselves from Russian oil. But given the yearly fluctuation of gas prices and the fact that the infrastructure wouldn't even be complete for six to eight years, it’s unlikely to do much good for Europe’s current energy crisis. Someone might want to get Pieridae’s executives a calculator.
But math is hard, so perhaps some may forgive them for that. What’s far less forgivable is the blatant attempt to use the tragic situation in Ukraine to try and sell us a project that will line their pockets, while leaving the rest of us to deal with the consequences. Consequences like an 18 per cent rise in emissions, threats to our water, fisheries and health, and decades locked into an energy system that jeopardizes our chance of a better future.
But, as mentioned, we’ve been here before. We know what to do.
People and organizations across Nova Scotia and throughout the country are stepping up to fight the expansion of LNG in the Maritimes. The Ecology Action Centre and our allies have set up petitions and info that you can use to help us in this fight. You can find them at StopTheGas.ca.
You can also contact your representatives directly to let them know how you feel about LNG in Atlantic Canada. Together, we can demand better. We can demand a fair, low-carbon future for our communities that will create thousands of good, sustainable jobs and protect our climate. We can demand energy solutions that are clean, affordable and reliable.
So yes, we’ve been here before. But with your help, we can make it so that we never have to be here again.
Kelsey Lane is the senior climate policy coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre.