Saturday, June 01, 2019

Signifying What?


Jason Kenney is all about oil. And, given what's happening in the rest of the world, it's clear that he's living on another planet. As this one warms because of the consequences of fossil fuel extraction, he wants to speed up that extraction. Mitchell Anderson writes:

As the rest of the planet strives to curb carbon dependence, Alberta is instead stepping on the gas. The industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator has apparently promised the petroleum sector they will soon offer 15 minute automated approvals on about 90 per cent of new drilling permits. What’s next? A drive through window? A roadside vending machine?
The urgency to expedite new petroleum projects stands in stark contrast to the utter disinterest in cleaning up the old ones. Alberta is perhaps unique in the world in having no mandatory timelines for reclaiming oil and gas wells. There are about 300,000 conventional oil and gas wells in the province, all of which eventually require cleanup. Over half, or 167,000, are listed as inactive or abandoned. The oldest dates back to 1918. What’s the rush?
The Alberta government says this collective liability is a mere $18.5 billion. Internal figures from the regulator analyzed by the Alberta Liabilities Disclosure Project instead peg the cleanup bill at up to $70 billion. This snapshot does not of course include the almost 3,000 additional drilling permits to be dispensed this year by the regulator’s expedited algorithm.
At the current leisurely reclamation rate it could take 126 years to deal with the methane-leaking mess already created. Yet somehow there is an assumption that the oil and gas industry is going to be around more than a century from now to settle up, even though almost 80 per cent of Alberta’s conventional crude reserves have already been extracted. Not to worry — Alberta regulators have ensured that industry posted funds to cover 0.3 per cent of cleanup costs.

Albertans face an existential crisis and an environmental disaster. As the rest of the world weens itself off fossil fuels, their province digs in and goes all in. The mess that will be left behind will be monstrous:

Apparently Ottawa and Alberta have hatched a plan to allow some bitumen producers to begin to dump tailings ponds into the Athabasca River. Decades of effort have failed to find a credible treatment option for the 1.3 trillion litres of toxic slurry built up since the 1970s. Yet oilsands firms may soon be authorized to release effluent treated by an as-yet-unproven technology into a river with one of the largest freshwater estuaries in the world. What could go wrong?
Michael van den Heuvel, a water expert from the University of Prince Edward Island summed up the grim environmental endgame for this decades-long problem “It’s going to happen sooner or later,” he told the Globe and Mail. “And it’s better it happens in a controlled and managed fashion than later on when nobody has the money.”
It is rare to have such an unvarnished assessment of the trajectory of the environmental and economic catastrophe now unfolding in Alberta. According to leaked government documents, the red ink associated with decommissioning all pipelines, well sites and tailings ponds totals $260 billion and climbing.

Apparently, that assessment hasn't penetrated Mr. Kenney's psyche:

Even as the petroleum party is winding down in Alberta, denial seems in full swing. Premier Jason Kenney acts like a drunken host offering exiting oil companies all manner of lavish inducements to stick around a while longer.
As promised, the first law tabled by his government was the Carbon Tax Repeal Act. Labour codes are watered down under the Orwellian title of the Open for Business Act. Corporate taxes are slashed, costing the already beleaguered treasury $4.5 billion over the next four years, according to the NDP Opposition. Kenney also pledged to wind down government support for clean energy projects, while spending $30 million in public funds on a so-called war room to counter climate criticism of the petroleum sector.

Word is that Kenney will be heading to Ontario during the federal election. With Doug Ford, he's planning  to tell Ontarians how we should do things. There will be a lot of sound and fury.

Signifying what?

Image: The Globe And Mail

6 comments:

Lorne said...

That this is transpiring at such a crucial moment in earth's history leaves me speechless, Owen.

Owen Gray said...

The evidence of the disaster that awaits us is overwhelming, Lorne. Only the willfully ignorant can stand with Kenney.

John B. said...

Lying politicians, crooked businessmen and academic whores are nothing new. These guys are criminals.

Owen Gray said...

And what is disturbing, John, is that so many of us fall for their cons.

The Mound of Sound said...


I wonder how emboldened Kenney has become thanks to the collaboration Alberta receives from Ottawa? Let's face it, the federal Liberals are chin deep in this outrage yet a whole lot of
'environmentally concerned' voters will still cast their ballots for Trudeau on the pretext that he's so much better than Scheer. Does it really make that much difference?

Owen Gray said...

From what I'm read today, Mound, the Liberals and the Conservatives are neck and neck, while the Greens have risen to 12% support. Sounds like the Libs and the Conservatives are twins. But, apparently, a third choice is becoming more viable.