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Quebec between a rock and a hard place on gas from shale
It is like any other natural gas. Once purified, it's made up of the same carbon and hydrogen atoms. It will flow through a gas stove in exactly the same way.
Below the surface, however, it's different. Removing it from the chalkboard slate-like shale where it lies, sometimes kilometres underground, is complicated and expensive.
There is another difference. This gas lies in Quebec, the province with arguably the most tortured relationship with fossil fuels.
It could mean thousands of jobs and billions of dollars for the province, potentially redrawing the energy map in Canada.
But the environmental risks of getting this gas has both skeptics and hopefuls frustrated and worried.
The most skeptical? A village on Montreal's south shore called St-Marc-sur-Richelieu. After an Australian firm came in hoping to drill into the shale beneath, townsfolk started seeking answers. What will the effect be on the water? The air? The landscape?