That’s because Hibernia – one of the world’s largest drilling platforms, weighing over a million tonnes – is located in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet, rife with high waves, fog and violent storms. The disaster would push cleanup crews to the absolute limit; plugging the leak might be nearly impossible.

Are we prepared? Hardly. Most Canadians still don’t see Canada as an oil-producing nation, even though this country is the seventh-largest producer of crude oil in the world: We produce 2.8 million barrels a day, a number that is expected to grow to 4.3 million barrels a day by 2025.

As a result of this perception, many are clueless about the risky oil exploration and production activities occurring here every day. And without the drama of a catastrophe or heartbreaking images of oil-covered birds, it’s all too easy for Canadians to remain blissfully unaware.

I know this because until recently, I was one of those Canadians. I consider myself an environmentalist, but also a realist. I recycle and turn off lights, and I drive a car and eat processed food. I understand that we can’t live without oil – at least not right now. Furthermore, as a researcher studying disasters, vulnerability and risk at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, I thought I was fairly informed about the risks stemming from offshore drilling.

But travelling around New Orleans after last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion exposed me to the impact that spills can have on land, people and wildlife. It wasn’t pretty, and it inspired me to dig deeper into the dangers back home. What I discovered scared me.

Between 1999 and 2009 there were 156 oil spills (totalling over 2,600 barrels) off the coast of Newfoundland. The Terra Nova platform, 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s, was responsible for 36 of them, including an incidence of equipment malfunction in 2004 that led to Canada’s worst offshore oil spill to date—1,000 barrels of oil gushed into the Atlantic Ocean, with high waves and bad weather impeding cleanup.

. . .

Let’s be frank. Clean energy solutions that would reduce our dependence on oil are still a ways away. But being realistic means recognizing that short of imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling (not a bad idea), we need to ensure that our technologies, teams and training are tough enough to prevent a Deepwater Horizon-style spill from happening in Canada.

And at the moment, they’re not.

Gulliver's complete article is available on .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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At the Oil: Slick Suits and Sinister Scenarios symposium tomorrow, leading researchers in risk, disaster management, ethics and the environment will provide insights into the murky world of oil and the need to prepare for a potential disaster.

The symposium will take place, from noon to 2pm, in the Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome.

91��ɫ law, governance and ethics Professor Mark Schwartz (right) will discuss the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the largest off shore spill in the history of the United States. Schwartz will present an ethical critique of BP and speak about the importance of ethical crisis management and the lessons for Canadian oil producers.

Environmental studies Professor Gail Fraser (left) will compare the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its estimated impacts on marine birds to that of a much smaller spill in offshore Newfoundland. She will argue that cumulatively smaller, more frequent oil spills off the coast of Newfoundland have likely resulted in higher seabird mortalities compared to the very large single spill in the Gulf of Mexico, because oil breaks down more slowly in cold water and the species composition is different.

Fraser underscores the importance of having baseline data to estimate the impact of oil spills and discusses current challenges in NL regarding access to information relevant to oil spills.

Emergency management Professor Ali Asgary will examine the Canadian emergency preparedness and response capacities and gaps in dealing with large-scale oil spills. He is co-investigator of a recently completed project, “Real-time Detection of Oil Spills”, funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, which developed an expert system for rapid risk assessment of pipeline based oil and gas spills to be used by emergency response teams.

Right: Ali Asgary

Asgary's areas of research include disaster and emergency response, business continuity, development and applications of geographic information systems and agent-based modelling in disaster and emergency management.

Fraser’s research focuses on issues around the ecology and management of avian wildlife, and the environmental management of the extractive industries of oil and gas.

Schwartz is co-author of the textbook Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality (McGraw Hill, 2000) and the author of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach (Broadview Press, 2011).

Joanne Jones, a professor of audit and management information systems in 91��ɫ’s School of Administrative Studies, will moderate the discussion.

The event is presented by the School of Administrative Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

For more information, call ext. 20091 or e-mail tarawlo@yorku.ca. To register online, visit 91��ɫ’s School of Administrative Studies website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Meanwhile, as governments keep talking, operators continue to use the controversial section to block access to information.

Gail Fraser, a biologist and professor in the [Faculty of Environmental Studies] at 91��ɫ  in Toronto, placed five access to information requests in 2007 with the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, a joint federal-provincial body that regulates oil and gas drilling and production off the Newfoundland coast. The board cited the same section of the Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act to deny all five requests: Section 119(2).

But Fraser said she wasn’t asking for proprietary information, just environmental data about the frequency of oil sheens, for instance, and other pollutant information so she could compare the environmental effects predicted in the environmental assessments of oil production operations  to what’s actually happening. “The government is permitting oil and gas operators to operate in a public domain. And the waste involved in these developments is huge. And so it’s important for the public to understand what are the effects of those wastes. And so, you can’t,” she said in a phone interview with The Hill Times.

“Right now, the public is essentially in the dark as to the effects of oil development in the Grand Banks (off the Newfoundland coast).”

While there is obviously information that would make sense from a business perspective to not release publicly, said Fraser, she would like to see Section 119(2) scrapped and revised so that it is not applied to environmental and safety information. The Newfoundland and Nova Scotia boards have written to the federal and provincial ministers responsible for energy to ask them to review the section in Atlantic Accords, something Fraser welcomed.

Meanwhile, Fraser submitted another set of access to information requests to the Newfoundland board earlier this month and said she’s not hopeful she’ll get what she wants.

The complete article is available on for a fee or to existing subscribers.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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[The documents] include plans for Chevron Canada as it drills the country's deepest exploration well in 2,600 metres of water, about 425 kilometres northeast of St. John's.

Critics have raised concerns that Chevron only projected how an oil slick originating on the surface would spread. There were no such models done for a deepsea blowout such as the April 20 explosion on a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and spewed up to 700 million litres of crude into the sea.

Biologist and researcher Gail Fraser of 91��ɫ in Toronto is among those calling for better regulation and updated oil spill plans from offshore operators.

The repeated failure of efforts to cap the gusher in the Gulf exposed the limits of existing technology, she said. “I think Canadians really need to consider what is the worst-case scenario and ask themselves, ‘Is that tolerable? Are we willing to put up with that?’ Because we’ve seen now what the worst-case scenario is in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We really need to be thinking very hard and asking our governments: Are we doing our best at protecting ocean ecosystems? I would say we’re not even close.”

Fraser, a professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, also spoke about the concerns over deepsea oil spills, on radio stations in Belleville,Ont.; Saskatoon, Sask.; and Gander and St. John’s, Nfld. July 26. She has been a vocal of Chevron Canada's plans for several months.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Fraser was also interviewed for a news story on CBC.ca about :

Last month, officials from Chevron Canada told a Senate committee that it had performed 14,000 trajectory simulations and none of those tests showed oil reaching any coastline. However, where the oil would go is a mystery.

On Wednesday, Gail Fraser, an environmental scientist at 91��ɫ University, told CBC News that she was disappointed, but not surprised, that the details were withheld.

She said under the Atlantic Accord, oil companies were given the legal right to choose which information can be made public or kept private.

"So, even though they might have to tell the petroleum board, the CNLOPB, what they need to disclose, the [board] cannot disclose that data to the public unless they have written permission from the operators," Fraser said.

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, a marketing professor with the Schulich School of Business at 91��ɫ, said communicating with consumers through options that appear to cost very little is an important part of BP’s strategy at this point. “If they are seen to be wasting their money on fighting back too hard that is going to trigger a whole new wave of opposition,” said Middleton.

BP has purchased space in newspapers to spread their message, but they are being selective, said Middleton.

“The trick is you can’t be seen as spending too much because it is going to result in the very obvious question,” which is why aren’t you using the funds to improve safety procedures or support fisherman about to lose their livelihoods, he said. At this point the best BP can do is to appear transparent and attempt to moderate what is being said about them online, he said.

BP must be seen as apologetic and responsible but remind consumers there were two other companies involved in the crisis, he said.

The complete article is available on .

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The head of the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board has stressed that environmental protection is a top goal. But Gail Fraser, a professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, points out that the board members’ online biographies cite little or no related background. “They don’t have anybody on the board with environmental expertise that has voting capacity,” she said from Toronto. “They’re supposed to be regulating the environment.”

One of the six board members describes earning an unspecified science degree before joining the Newfoundland public service in 1969.

“None of them would know a good research design if it hit them in the head,” said Fraser, who is studying federal offshore regulations.

Fraser is a biologist . The complete article is .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Canada’s East Coast is now the only region in North America where oil companies can continue to drill deepwater exploration wells after President Barack Obama last week ordered the industry to suspend such operations in the Gulf of Mexico, pending a review of the BP disaster.

Gail Fraser, a biologist in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies , said she worries an accident like the one that has confounded BP would gush into the North Atlantic for months, killing sea birds, fish and marine mammals.

She argued that Chevron should be required to begin drilling a relief well even as it proceeds with the primary exploration well – though the industry argues such an approach would be both risky and prohibitively expensive.

“You can damage a lot of populations in a couple of months,” she said. “Is there going to be anything left alive in the Gulf of Mexico?”

Fraser also spoke about changes at the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board in the wake of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, on CBC Radio St. John’s, Nfld., June 2.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Scientists and environmentalists argue that the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (CNLOPB) suffers the same conflicts of interest that have afflicted the US regulator.

“The regulator has all this expertise for developing and promoting oil and gas but also is mandated to protect the environment,” said Gail Fraser, a professor of ecology and biology in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies who is studying Canada’s offshore regulations. “I think there’s more than a conflict of interest.”

Fraser said the board lacks transparency on industry waste and spills into the ocean, and is too cozy with industry, running land sales as well as regulating offshore drilling.

The complete article is available on . The story was also carried on .

Fraser's long-term research projects include long-term monitoring of Manx Shearwaters and Leach’s Storm Petrels, wildlife management and aspects of avian ecology in Toronto’s urban waterfront and the environmental effects offshore oil and gas.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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