Academic whose report led to fracking ban questions N.S. government’s gas claims

A former university president who oversaw the report that led to a decade-long ban on fracking in Nova Scotia is questioning the government’s claims that new natural gas development will lower emissions and energy prices.

On Monday the government announced it was putting Dalhousie University in charge of a $30-million program that will see a call for onshore natural gas exploration issued in the new year.

David Wheeler says the government’s claims that new gas development will lower electricity costs in Nova Scotia is misleading as gas will have to be sold on the international market with local users buying it back at international prices.

He says natural gas was once pitched as a transitional fuel that could lower emissions while cleaner energy forms came online, but the scientific community has now largely rejected that outlook.

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Wheeler was president of Cape Breton University in 2014 when he chaired an independent report for the government that said fracking shouldn’t be allowed until more research was done on health, environmental and economic impacts.

The province banned the practice the following month, but the Tim Houston government lifted the embargo in March.