December 23 2008 » News Clippings » Terrace Standard
Cullen Delays Coalbed Methane Meetings
SKEENA – BULKLEY VALLEY MP Nathan Cullen has delayed his plans, for now, to hold public meetings to discuss Shell’s plans to drill for coalbed methane in the Klappan.
The idea for community meetings was crafted before the company agreed to a two-year moratorium on drilling earlier this month. Despite the moratorium, Cullen said he is still working on a meeting schedule.
“We don’t want to simply put it on the back burner. We want to keep the conversation going,” he said.
Cullen added that the meeting plan is also being discussed with Shell.
“We’ve talked to the company and they want to stretch it out,” he said.
The MP originally had wanted the meetings in January and February, in advance of Shell’s plans to drill in the Klappan in the spring.
He will now use the time he had blocked out to hold meetings on the economy instead.
Cullen is so far opposed to the company’s plans.
“They have not made the argument it can be done safely,” he said.
Coalbed methane natural gas is so-named because it is resident to coal. It can be kept close to coal seams by water and since that water can be poisonous, it’s lead to worries about what might happen if it were to ever be released on the surface. In the Klappan, Shell said it will truck any groundwater it may find during exploratory drilling to a Fort St. John facility for treatment.
