A biologist and researcher is asking why none of the six men on the board regulating oil activity off Newfoundland lists environmental expertise as a prime credential , wrote The Canadian Press June 6:

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 York’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 who studies offshore oil regulations. The complete article is available on Yahoo.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– York University’s daily e-bulletin.