Climate Justice Taranaki announces renewable energy forum and protest of oil and gas conference

Climate Justice Taranaki are inviting the public to three engaging events over the next fortnight: a movie screening of the award-winning film ‘Gasland’, a renewable energy forum and a protest at ENEX, the oil and gas industry’s annual conference.

On Saturday May 28th Gasland will be screened at Arthouse Cinema on Devon Street at 5:30pm. This film, a comprehensive documentation of the harm caused by the oil and gas extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing, has inspired huge protests in the US, Canada, France, Australia and the UK. This technique is now being used in Taranaki but says Climate Justice Taranaki spokesperson Emily Bailey “after asking the Ministry of Economic Development under the Official Information Act, and the Taranaki Regional Council we suspect they do not even know what chemicals are being used here, which is of great concern to our farming and tourism industries and for the safety of drillsite workers.”.

On Tuesday June 7th the group are inviting the public to a free Renewable Energy Forum from 6:30pm at the Red Cross Centre on Gill Street. “We will be having short presentations from some local experts who are using and experimenting with renewable energies such as solar, micro-hydro and methane-digestion.” says Bailey. “We can’t stop fossil fuel extraction unless we stop the demand for it and the only way to do that is to reduce our energy consumption and move to renewable energies, so this forum is providing a space to show people how to do it here”.

The Renewable Energy Forum is of course in stark contrast to the $400 plus per head petroleum conference happening on June 9-10 at the TSB Stadium called ENEX 2011. ENEX brings CEOs and management from the many national and international oil and gas companies drilling our region for mass profit, as well as local contractors, recruitment agencies and government representatives. There are scheduled talks on issues such as seismic drilling, fracking, deep-well injection and marine oil spills plus an industry expo. “They’re opening the doors briefly on the second and last day from 1:30 to 3:30pm so we’re asking people to come along and tell them what we think of their dangerous and polluting industry. It’s not just the injuries and social disruption to our workers, the threat of oilspills and pollution of land and water or the lies about their pollution and promised jobs, but it's also the global impacts of climate change that seriously affect everyone on this planet.” concluded Bailey.
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