In yet another ataxic effort to back off a policy that you see does not work while still convinced it does, the Canadian province of New Brunswick, under a premier from the provincial wing of the same Liberal party that governs federally, suddenly flops its flip on fracking, announcing a review of its sanctimonious ban. Now fracking, of course, doesn’t just produce the dreaded hydrocarbon energy in abundance, it does it in ways the left has somehow persuaded itself, and much of the populace, are strangely diabolical including producing flaming tap water. So it’s demonized even by the standards of fossil fuels generally, and with even less cause. Yet plainly New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt has realized with horror not only that Canadians generally and New Brunswickers in particular (New Brunswicks? New Brungians? Alas, no, just “New Brunswickers”) need oil and gas to deal with “ongoing affordability issues” but that they need to use modern techniques to get them. Strange that relentless green progressivism keeps driving up the cost of living and plunging the government into record deficits no matter how often politicians declare the old ways obsolete, grubby and expensive.
As they keep doing. Yet the dang accountants keep reporting back that it’s progressivism that breaks the bank:
“Despite promising to balance the books every year on the [2024] campaign trail, the Liberals are now planning to run massive deficits all the way to the October 2028 election.”
As a result, something that ought to be simple is incredibly complicated:
“Natural gas could be a big financial boon for the province, via royalties. Geologists estimate that the province has about 70 trillion cubic feet, mostly in the Frederick Brook shale between Sussex and Elgin. ‘What is the best way to tackle what we know is a pending energy shortage due to rising demand from New Brunswickers, from New Brunswick businesses, and from our neighbours over the next few years?’ Holt asked in her opening remarks.”
Well, duh. But as the news story added:
“While the [2024 Liberal] platform was silent on fracking, it did contain this passage: ‘We are at a turning point. With the increased frequency of extreme weather events and hotter summers, not enough is being done to protect people and our environment.’”
So you stagger in circles holding your head and engaging in temporizing measures that please nobody… including you.
The Greens gave her what-for and it’s hard not to sympathize at least with their feeling that they had been misled:
“Green party Leader David Coon condemned Holt’s move, and said she’s ‘blown up’ any remaining credibility she had on the environment file. ‘I’m extremely disappointed in Premier Holt,’ Coon said. ‘It is dangerous what she’s contemplating doing here: to potentially put tens of trillions of cubic metres of gas, fracked gas, on the market to burn in the atmosphere when we’re hurtling towards climate breakdown – it’s irresponsible. She didn’t even mention the fact that we are in a climate crisis, that we need to phase out our use of fossil fuels.’”
Well, no. It would be awkward under the circumstances. And it wouldn’t have done much for the quivering shreds of her credibility. But as Coon also said:
“When she started to speak, she looked extremely nervous. It seemed like she was doing something that was not what she was hoping to do, and so it’s very disappointing that she’s opened the door here.”
And it’s important to understand that it’s not what she was hoping to do or expecting to do, including while campaigning in 2024, and that she is indeed disappointed. But reality isn’t cooperating. As it often does not with facile assumptions. Including those of the federal Liberals about pricing gasoline out of reach and reaping easy economic and political benefits. Somehow their green ace of trumps is coming in red and they can’t make sense of it.
