Yeah coal is complete garbage when compared to NG.

Recently, the government already took action to ban drilling near cities, which is a clear step that they are moving forward already putting rules in place. Second, they have their finance minister out in BC/Alberta talking to their finance ministers on how they set up their fiscal regime (royalties). These are two good indicators for us. It shows that they are serious and always have been.

Take a look at this articles...

http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/environnement/archives/2011/02/20110204-164637.html

"Ms. Normandeau said that Quebec is currently seeking a "passageway" between an outright moratorium and the status quo, which would maintain a certain level of gas exploration in Quebec. "We do not want to deprive themselves of that information [from exploration]," said Mrs. Normandeau."

The government knows it has to continue to allow exploration...because we all know that we're going to need 30-50 wells to prove this up and optimize techniques/recovery etc etc. Full production in 2014...I mean think about it...a moratorium on what? Nothing is proven at all...the moratorium idea is stupid beyond belief...Alberta, BC and SASK are drilling shale...from what I know there hasn't been any complaints or huge problems, or we'd have heard an outcry. From what I know, there is a conservative 15+ states producing shale in the states, of course some more than others and each monitering the drilling. Of all those, New York was the only one to impose it because of terrible companies...already they recently said they will not wait for the EPA study because it's too far away, and they will have new regulations by June 2011. I can tell you they are already feeling the affects of no drilling with huge job loss and business around are suffering. Yes, they needed better regulations...so why didn't the other 15+ states impose a moratorium...where is the outcry from people if things are so catastrophic? There isn't a uniform consensus...if this technology was pure evil, you would have an uproar across the continent and it would be ugly. Clearly, this industry does have risks as they all do, but most shale producing states seem to be doing very well managing it and having laws in place and protocol should anything happen etc...just like Toyota recalling millions of cars, they had something in place and strict protocol to follow if they messed up...now all seems forgotten with Toyota because they made a mistake, and corrected it...this is the world, it's going to happen.

Quebec needs to adapts all the best practices and make sure everything is in place to promote good drilling and of course all protocol in place should anything go wrong...which let me tell you...might every once in a while...whether it is cars, or meat being recalled because of contamination etc...no large industry is without risk.

Rocco :)