Opponents of fracking have an
outdated idea of what it actually means: that, from Stantec VP John Adams at Saint John
common council, hoping to dispel what he calls common myths about the process of
fracking and shale gas in general.Adams says shale gas could represent a huge economic boost for this region: for one, companies need 420 people working in 150 different jobs to complete and produce gas at each well. If you have 200 wells per year, Adams stated, that could represent as many 2,600 direct jobs per year.
Nonetheless, Adams admitted he's been in the oil and gas industry for decades and he's seen some large companies do horrific things. He cited the example of Nigeria, in which pools of oil were simple left standing on the ground, as one region in which the actions of certain corporations were "horrific". That being said, Adams claimed companies are currently "a thousand times better than they were 30 years ago" and are now getting their act together.
Further, Adams says it's important to get the major oil and gas players on board because if there is a blow-out and something goes wrong, you want to have someone with deep pockets to clean it up and not the taxpayers.
