This site, Occupy Coleman, published on the Stop Fracking British Columbia website (est. February 2010), is devoted to monitoring the activities of BC Liberal Party Minister Rich Coleman and the administration of his new Ministry of Natural Gas Development (the ‘un-natural’ realm of activities of unconventional ‘natural’ gas development).

There are a wide range of significant elements and controversies surrounding the yet unaddressed, cumulative environmental effects issues related to oil and gas fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in British Columbia which we introduced:

Unlike the BC government, members of the federal Canadian Natural Resources Standing Committee were so interested in the early reports and issues related to cumulative environmental effects we published on our website, that they asked the B.C. Tap Water Alliance to appear before the Committee on February 3, 2011, during its thematic lengthy discussion hearings on Energy Security in Canada.

On Monday, June 10, 2013, just weeks following the recent British Columbia provincial election, the re-elected BC Liberal Party administration began firing up a new provincial Ministry of Natural Gas Development, assigned to Minister Rich Coleman (who represents the BC electoral riding of Fort Langley-Aldergrove), the former Minister of Energy.

In our November 7, 2011 news release, Alliance Demands Energy Minister Rich Coleman’s Resignation, Mr. Coleman’s track record on significant public land planning issues related to public consultation and fracking in northeast BC leaves much to be desired. Former Energy Minister Coleman gifted a long-term and massive fresh water diversion permit for energy giant Talisman Energy and Canbriam Energy, featured in a short television documentary on November 5, 2011, by Global TV, Untested Science.

In separate mandates provided to 18 other Executive Cabinet Ministers, on June 10, 2013, Premier Christy Clarke empowered Mr. Coleman with a three-page long “Mandate Letter.” According to this mandate, in addition to the new Minister’s dedicated administration to “natural gas” Mr. Coleman has oddly been assigned an adjoining mandate to finesse “heavy oil and refinery” and “heavy oil pipelines and projects.” In his Natural Gas portfolio, the Premier (most likely through her key private energy industry advisors and political campaign funders) has ordered the new Minister to quickly streamline “permitting for project applications” made by the oil and gas industry through BC’s Regulator, the BC Oil and Gas Commission. On page three of the Premier’s Mandate Letter is reference to an “attached document that provides further direction for you as a Minister.” That “attached document” has not yet been made public.

On Solstice Friday June 21, 2013, the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Exxon Joins LNG Race in B.C., featured a front page article on the world’s largest energy company, Exxon, announcing yet another and this now the largest, bid on Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) development in BC. Given the professional scrutiny and analysis in a February 2013 Post Carbon Institute report, Drill Baby Drill: Can Unconventioal Fuels Usher in a New Era of Energy Abundance?, concerning questionable long term investment hype and economic and ecological consequences from the unconventional gas and oil fracking industry, the public should wisely re-consider and very diligently weigh if these seemingly mouth-watering and juicy LNG public relations ‘investment opportunities’ are in fact diverting the public’s and the global media’s attention away from what is first and foremost of importance: grappling with the critical on-the-ground integrated planning inquiry issues related to cumulative environmental effects from fracking in northeast BC, which the BC Liberal administration has so far ignored. I.e., if you want to build a good house, make sure you have a solid architectural plan, then, make sure you use concrete for your structural foundation, and make darn sure that the concrete doesn’t have saline water mixed into it.