Green Party candidate David Orton:

            We need to fundamentally change Canada's energy policy!

            Press Release

            January 5, 2006, Saltsprings, Pictou County

                David Orton, Green Party candidate for Central Nova says, "We need

            to rapidly wean ourselves off fossil fuels, because the oil that

            underpins industrial society is now in decline worldwide, and present

            use of fossil fuels are causing climate change and global warming."

                Orton expressed concern about Canada's oil and gas energy policy, as

            it seems to be only an extension of the American energy policy. Orton

            said: "This is just shameful and totally against our national

            interests. Two-thirds of the oil and gas production goes south of the

            border. Moreover, because of NAFTA, our country is REQUIRED to supply

            the U.S., even if we have a critical shortage in our country. Some

            Canadian sovereignty!"

                Orton said: "The world-wide decline of oil production has enormous

            implications for our industrial society, for how food is produced and

            transported around the world, and for manufacturing. Population

            increase has been one of the consequences of the fossil fuel age. The

            globalized economy is going to drastically shrink, as cheap oil

            becomes increasingly expensive and fought over by the rising

            industrial giants like China and India competing with the United

            States for whatever oil and natural gas supplies remain in the world."

                Orton advocates "We should treat our own remaining oil and gas with

            reverence, to be used extremely circumspectly, as we seek a new local

            economy within Nature's balance."

                Orton expressed concern about climate change: "We must heed the

            warnings - climate change is happening. This can be seen in the

            increasing and unusual weather disturbances, such as hurricanes which

            feed off warmer ocean temperatures, melting of arctic sea ice,

            permafrost and glaciers, etc. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on

            Climate Change says that greenhouse gas emissions must be cut 50-70

            percent if the atmosphere of the planet is to remain hospitable."

            "Our fossil fuel extraction for export to the U.S. is wrong. It goes

            to a country which uses up to twenty five percent of the world's

            daily oil production for about five percent of the world's

            population, and produces about twenty-five percent of the world's

            greenhouse gases. Isn't this economic and ecological madness on

            Canada's part?" said Green Party candidate David Orton.

                "Here in the Maritimes, we also have to be concerned about liquid

            natural gas (LNG) terminals and tankers", said Orton. "In Canada,

            natural gas production has had its own 'peak' and is probably

            declining. Now we see a promotion of LNG terminals in our region,

            after having vastly overstated the extent of the Sable Gas Project."

                "Yet, we are opening up our region to potentially highly dangerous

            LNG tankers (think 1917 Halifax explosion!). Maritimers have little

            knowledge of the dangers involved with shipping of liquified natural

            gas, which will be coming our way from countries such as Russia,

            Algeria, Quatar, and Trinidad. For LNG tanker transport, natural gas

            is cooled and greatly reduced in volume, making it liquid. At the LNG

            terminal, the liquid is warmed and becomes a gas again as it enter

            the pipeline system. With this additional gas, there will be more

            compressor stations and 'pipeline looping'. Thus the pipeline

            expansion will further disrupt the ecology and the lives of Nova

            Scotians and New Brunswickers on the pipeline route."

                Orton pointed out that the LNG terminals are  proposed for Bear Head

            on Cape Breton Island, Goldboro in Guysborough County, and Canaport

            in New Brunswick. There is also a proposal for building a huge

            petrochemical complex in Goldboro using imported natural gas.

                According to documents obtained from US anti-LNG activists, LNG

            tankers entering Boston Harbour are said to be almost 1000 feet long

            and holding up to 33 million gallons of product. There are 500 and

            1000 yard security perimeters around the ship carrying the liquified

            gas with the guard boats authorized to shoot, helicopter overhead and

            adjacent roads and wharfs shut down during docking time. The policing

            costs are enormous. If the hull is breached, and the gas ignites, it

            would burn at a very high temperature causing the hull of the ship to

            melt. There is extensive electronic surveillance around the LNG

            terminals. Orton concluded by stressing that "All this is coming our

            way, if we don't organize to stop it!"