The territorial government and Yukon Energy must not be allowed to embrace the use of natural gas as an alternative to diesel fuel, Yukoners heard at an anti-fracking rally held Saturday afternoon.

Anne Middler of the Yukon Conservation Society said accepting the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Yukon is to invite the industrial practice of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas resources in the Yukon.

LNG equals fracking, and allowing Yukon Energy to move forward with plans to switch two of its older diesel generators to new natural gas generators with the backing of the Yukon government opens the territory's door to fracking, she said.

"If we allow a market for this extreme hydrocarbon to be developed here, we will have a much harder time to keep fracking out,” Middler told more than 100 people gathered for a march from Elijah Smith Building to the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre.

"We need to say no to LNG.

"Our priority now is to keep the Yukon frack-free, so say no to LNG,” Middler said.

"Spread the word.”

The anti-fracking rally organized by Yukoners Concerned with Oil and Gas Exploration/Development coincided with the violent and very publicized anti-fracking protest late last week in New Brunswick.

Yukoners Concerned maintain geological records indicate the only economical natural gas reserves in the Yukon are found in shale structures, and the only viable method of extracting natural gas from shale deposits is with hydraulic fracturing.

Yukon Energy is moving forward with a $34-million plan to replace two of its diesel generators at the Whitehorse Rapids Dam with two natural gas generators next year.

The publicly owned utility has a five-year contract with Shell Canada to supply LNG from the company's facility near Calgary.

Yukon Energy maintains it has been assured the natural gas will be produced by conventional means, and not by hydraulic fracturing.

Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd., on the other hand, told municipal leaders at a conference last spring it cannot say what portion of the LNG it plans to import for an experimental project will be a product of hydraulic fracturing.

The private utility is moving forward with plans to convert one of its six diesel generators in Watson Lake to a hybrid of natural gas and diesel. If it proves to be beneficial, it would convert the remaining five.

When Yukon Electrical representatives were asked about the source of the LNG they would be importing, they said it would be impossible to say. Their supplier obtains its product from both fracking and conventional gas wells, the company pointed out.

Yukon Energy and Yukon Electrical maintain LNG is less expensive and burns more cleanly, which they say is better for the environment.

Middler and others, however, told the 100-plus Yukoners gathered Saturday that natural gas is not cleaner when considering the whole life cycle, from the well-head to the burner, particularly if it's produced using hydraulic fracturing.

Evidence shows natural gas is harder on the atmosphere over the long-run because it is essentially methane gas, and methane gas emissions are much more harmful than emissions from burning diesel fuel, Middler said.

She said importing LNG into the Yukon will send a message that fracking is OK here.

And if Yukoners embrace LNG now, they would have a much harder time later fending off the oil and gas industry's desire to use hydraulic fracturing in the Yukon, she said.

NDP Environment critic Kate White told the gathering fracking requires a massive industrial exercise requiring thousands of transport trucks of sand, chemicals and fresh water for every single well.

The impact on the surface landscape alone by the construction of the road network to support fracking projects would be mind-boggling, the MLA suggested.

White said the additional heavy transport traffic would have serious implications for highway maintenance, and would ultimately stretch the Yukon's volunteer ambulance corps even thinner than it is already.

Yukoners must not buy into industry's platform that it can safely extract natural gas, that natural gas is critical in meeting North America's energy needs and is a stepping stone to economic revival, she said.

White noted Yukoners stood together two years ago in the debate over oil and gas exploration in the Whitehorse trough. They did much more than force the Yukon government to implement a five-year moratorium on trough, she said.

The NDP Environment critic said Yukoners turned the conversation from the question of when fracking would occur here to if fracking will ever occur here.

"The oil and gas industry is knocking on our door, and we have a choice to make,” White told the gathering. "Do we really have to let them in because they are knocking?

"No way,” some in the crowd responded. "No way.”

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