After reading in the April 5 Yukon News about “Company announces Yukon fracking plan” and about “Fracking is a foregone conclusion,” I would like to offer a few considerations for people to think about in terms of Yukon’s future.
“The past does not equal the future,” and it is especially true when we talk about fracking. If there were conventional gas activities in Kotaneelee in southeast Yukon, great, these were the good times.
The Kotaneelee’s new owners say they will obtain 13-trillion cubic feet of shale gas though unconventional fracking out of the area.
Do you know that 13-trillion cubic feet represents only 5.6 months’ supply of electricity for the entire United States?
Yes, less than six months (if they are not over-evaluating as they usually do to get bigger subsidies).
And other question: Does the company want us to believe that they will use the existing wells that are in place?
Fifty per cent of the conventional gas wells that are over 30 years old (like Kotaneelee in southeast Yukon) have already cracks, so if they use the vastly more dangerous method of hydraulic fracturing, do the calculation…
And each of the “now typical” multi-pad constructions chew up five to nine acres. That does not count the compressors, pipelines and everything in between they need to frack.
Gas companies will never tell you that when they are done there is still 80 per cent of the methane (in the now broken up ground) that leaks into the water bodies for thousands of years to come.
Why will fracking in the Yukon be a done deal? The past does not equal the future; it is not good because government says so.
Yukoners have experience about keeping balance.
Dempster Highway, Peel Basin and southeast Yukon are part of our front yard.
The good news is that there are many of us in the Yukon who want to use solar or wind or biomass before our water explodes. Visit Frackfree Yukon on Facebook and see how advanced other parts of the world are concerning renewable energies.
Jacqueline Vigneux
Whitehorse