Quebec Bans Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas
According to the Montreal Gazette, Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) has banned the hydraulic fracturing technique of stimulating oil and gas wells throughout the province.
Details are not yet posted on the English section of the BAPE website. According to the article, the ban is in place immediately, but does not affect the 31 wells which have already been drilled. Additionally, hydraulic fracturing can be conducted if it is determined by a panel of experts to be for scientific purposes.
>The BAPE has no powers to impose anything: it presents recommendations to the provincial government that can adopt in part, in full or not at all some, all or none at all of its recommendations.
The BAPE report mentions on page 36 that there are already 603 drilling sites in Quebec, and any of those can be fracked for "advancing scientific knowledge".