Early last December, the province released the Coal Industry Modernization Initiative, which was meant to chart a clean course for future coal mining on the eastern slopes.
Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean claimed that coal mining companies would be held to the “highest environmental standards in the world” and that the province would only allow underground and low-impact surface mining.
Now, the provincial government has opened the eastern slopes to new coal applications to avoid an expensive lawsuit from five mining corporations.
Many citizens are outraged. Independent scientists who have read the fine print of the modernization initiative fear lifting the moratorium will open the door to a wide range of environmentally destructive strip mining techniques.
Where’s The Science?
“Does that mean just anything lower than what you would expect if you’re just blasting the whole mountain apart? I’d say there are a lot of caveats in what they’re saying,” said Dr. Bill Donahue, former executive director of science for Alberta Environment, in a recent interview.
“In terms of strip mining versus pit mining, I don’t know how much of a difference there is going to be. Because when you’re doing it on the side of a mountain, water flows downhill. And I don’t see how that’s not going to end up being a huge selenium pump.”
Selenium is one of many metals coal mining releases into watersheds, damaging fish habitat.
Selenium is not the only toxin. Antimony, cobalt, lithium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, strontium, thallium, uranium and many others are released for decades by weathering exposed waste rock. And history has proven that mitigating the environmental impacts of coal mining is easier said than done.
As previously reported by The Rockies Life, the cost of cleaning up selenium contamination from Teck’s Elk Valley mines in BC, west of Crowsnest Pass, is estimated at more than $6 billion.
Lorne Fitch, a former provincial fisheries biologist and University of Calgary professor, wrote in a recent column that the policy lacks “spine.”
He accused the government of justifying coal mining on the eastern slopes by dismissing “the ecological, hydrological, water quality, health and social issues, as well as reclamation feasibility.”
Critics like Donahue and Fitch say what’s missing is science and evidence to back the claim the Coal Mining Modernization Initiative will be world-class.
Sacrifice Eastern Slopes to Avoid Corporate Lawsuits
On January 21, as scientists continued to raise red flags about a coal policy full of holes and vague statements, the provincial government dropped a bomb by announcing that it would once again start allowing coal exploration and development on the eastern slopes.
Premier Danielle Smith told reporters that the decision was made to spare taxpayers the burden of an expensive lawsuit.
Four companies, Cabin Ridge Holdings Ltd., Atrum Coal Ltd, Black Eagle Mining Corp, and Montem, are seeking damages for sunk costs and lost earnings.
Northback Holdings, the subsidiary of Australian company Hancock Prospecting, trying to open the Grassy Mountain open pit coal mine, launched a separate lawsuit last June.
The companies say they’re out of pocket $15 billion after the province cancelled the 1976 Coal Policy in 2020. Then, the province handed out new coal leases before pumping the brakes less than two years later following swift public backlash.
Following the announcement in mid-January, Minister Brian Jean directed the Alberta Energy Regulator to start reviewing eastern slopes coal mining applications, including those previously put on ice.
Public Input Ignored
Bill Trafford is appalled. He was one of five members of a panel created in 2021 that then-energy minister Sonya Savage asked to consult the public on the future of coal mining.
“[The committee] just can’t believe that the government would ask us to do all this. And we did it … in a way that was probably much more thorough and much more positive than anything they’d ever done, in terms of getting public engagement,” Trafford told the CBC. “Then they say, ‘Well, we’re going to throw that in the dumpster and go ahead with what the coal industry thinks they want to do.'”
Trafford is president of the Livingstone Landowners Group, which pushes for responsible land use and sustainable development in the Livingstone-Porcupine region of southwestern Alberta.
Nigel Bankes, a University of Calgary resource law specialist, has been blogging about Alberta’s mishandling of the coal file for the past five years. He says the message is clear – it’s game on for coal companies despite a majority of Albertans being opposed to coal mining on the sensitive eastern slopes.
“And while many consider coal mining to be a sunset industry, announcements from the Government of Alberta in December 2024 suggest that the Government is still committed to encouraging new coal projects in the province,” wrote Bankes, referring to the December release of the Coal Mining Modernization Initiative.
Now that the province has opened the gate to new coal mines on the Canadian Rockies’ eastern slopes, this new policy looks like old-fashioned strip mining ways wrapped up in a pretty bow, while new solar and wind projects have huge no-go zones anywhere near mountains. You can strip mine our mountains but not put up wind turbines because the latter negatively affect the ‘viewscapes.’
Musician Corb Lund told the Calgary Herald that Danielle Smith’s UCP government will pay a price for throwing eastern slopes watersheds under the bus to satisfy lawsuit-threatening mining corporations.
“So in exchange for keeping their eggs off their face, they’re sacrificing our eastern slopes and our water,” Lund said. “Whatever it costs in court is a tiny, tiny fraction of what it’s going to cost the taxpayers years from now to clean this mess up.”
Benefits of Coal to Albertans
And will Albertans make a ton of cash from coal royalties to bring us prosperity?
Apparently not.
In a 2021 opinion piece for the Calgary Herald, Brian Jean wrote, “The royalties Albertans get from coal are minuscule — they wouldn’t fund the annual budget of the energy war room. The cost-benefit of coal may not be there. Alberta collects about one percent of coal revenue, less than $100 per coal railcar, that must be weighed against the significant environmental risk and the potentially more severe reputational risk.”
We’ll leave the last words to the 2021 version of Brain Jean.
“Alberta is already the target of radicals who tell everyone that our energy industry is a global threat. They are wrong on the oilsands, but I am not convinced that the small net benefits we get from any new open-pit coal mines will be worth the price of wearing another environmental target.”
“Obviously, this is a complicated issue, but Albertans should be consulted and heard.”
But Albertans have spoken, but Brian Jean’s government is not listening.
