The vast majority of Albertans want oil and gas companies to pay for cleanup of old oil wells, a new poll prepared by Janet Brown for the Coalition for Responsible Energy (C4RE) reveals.
The poll asked 900 Albertans who should be responsible for final well cleanup – the public through government funding or the oil companies operating the wells. Ninety-two per cent of respondents said polluting oil companies should pay.
The results come as the Alberta government moves closer to turning the Mature Assets Strategy into law. This strategy, developed with industry insiders behind closed doors, recommends using public funds to manage cleanup.
However Albertans across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support the polluters pay principle, the polling reveals. According to the principle, which is already written into Alberta law, energy companies who create messes and reap profits are required to pay for cleanup.
The data also shows that Albertans are more united than divided on key issues facing the province. “These findings show that these aren’t just rural concerns. People across Alberta agree that industry should be held responsible for these costs,” Brown said of the findings.
Cleanup costs for the province’s aging oil wells are estimated to be between $60 and $130 billion – an enormous bill to pass on to Albertan citizens.
Elected officials have historically not held polluting companies to the cleanup contracts they sign before drilling.
Energy regulator too weak to do the job
While the polluters pay policy is enshrined in Alberta law, what’s missing is an energy regulator that enforces the law, Bill Trafford of the Livingstone Landowners Group told TheRockies.Life in an interview.
While the Livingstone Landowners Group largely focuses on responsible development of coal in the Eastern Slopes, Trafford said of oil and gas, “it’s exactly the same issue.”
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is responsible for managing both coal and oil development in the province. Under the Responsible Energy Development Act, the AER is to “provide for the efficient, safe, orderly and environmentally responsible development of energy resources and mineral resources in Alberta.” This includes well cleanup.
However, the AER “has black marks all over it for being one sided to development companies like oil and gas and coal,” Trafford said. “They’ve not gone after companies even though they know that [companies] are causing a problem.”
There are numerous examples of this on both the coal and oil files. AER CEO Rob Morgan cancelled a public hearing in August for a coal mine in Grande Cache, seemingly because the coal company developing the mine didn’t like Alberta’s regulatory process. The AER also recently allowed oil company MAGA Energy to add hundreds of wells to its portfolio despite the company’s well-documented financial troubles.
“Everybody agrees with polluter pays,” Trafford said. “What people need to understand is that the Alberta Energy Regulator is not particularly interested in ensuring that happens.”
What can be done
Citizens are rallying to hold oil companies accountable, and to push the government to enact policies that will do that.
C4RE is hosting town halls across the province on Alberta’s oil and gas well cleanup crisis. At these town halls, many have said that “industry is making record profits, and they must pay what they owe now,” campaign organizer Phillip Meintzer said in a press release.
“Landowners’ frustration with industry is reaching a boiling point,” said Alberta Surface Rights Federation President Bill Heidecker in the release. “Unless these issues are addressed, there can be no consideration of increased production, no new pipelines, or carbon capture and storage. It makes no sense.”
