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Special report

Legacy of liabilities

 Alberta's industrial legacy.

14 Articles

Alberta premier calls energy transition an 'ideological scheme'

When a reporter asked Alberta Premier Jason Kenney whether plummeting oil prices merit a discussion about energy transition, Kenney questioned the reporter's credentials and criticized him for asking the question. The Premier also unveiled details of a new well-cleanup program, which critics said could leave taxpayers on the hook for oil and gas liabilities.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Emma McIntosh
  • News
  • Politics
April 24th 2020
A pumpjack in the Alberta prairie. Supplied by Alberta Energy Regulator

Alberta tweaks orphan well cleanup rules

Orphan wells with no financially viable owner have piled up in recent years due to lax cleanup rules and dampened crude prices. The Alberta government unveiled new rules aimed at helping fix the problem Tuesday.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Emma McIntosh
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
March 31st 2020
A pumpjack in the Alberta prairie. Supplied by Alberta Energy Regulator

Here's what Alberta can learn from California's orphan well problem

Alberta has been reluctant to take steps that, in California’s case, have lessened the enormous strain on the state’s public purse.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Emma McIntosh
  • Analysis
  • Energy
  • Politics
January 29th 2020

Kenney facing Alberta's reckoning

The challenge of cleaning up a century of development comes early for Alberta's newly-elected United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney. There is a solution to the massive oil and gas site cleanup that could put energy workers back to work.
Opinion
  • Profile photo of Regan Boychuk
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Politics
May 2nd 2019

‘Forgotten and ignored’ An Alberta couple fights a leaky oil well

The Dorins say their son is "determined to get justice before we die." They ever wanted the oil well on their farm in rural Alberta in the first place. Now it's leaking gas. They're elderly and unwell. And they've spent a fortune in court trying to get attention and compensation.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Alannah Page
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
April 8th 2019
Gary Smith, Lexin, Alberta

Putting the Supreme Court’s Redwater decision in context

The hour is late and the odds against the world’s richest and most powerful industry are steep, but at least courts have not taken away our most powerful tool. Regan Boychuk puts the Supreme Court’s Redwater decision in context.
Opinion
  • Profile photo of Regan Boychuk
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Politics
February 1st 2019
Alberta Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd (left) and Premier Rachel Notley tour Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline replacement site at Hardisty, Alta. on Aug. 10, 2017.

Alberta lauds court ruling but has no oil well cleanup plan

Alberta's energy minister says taxpayers are "better protected" thanks to a Supreme Court of Canada decision Thursday that prioritized clean up costs for abandoned oil and gas wells before debts to creditors when companies go bankrupt. But the NDP government still doesn't have a cleanup plan for more than 80,000 inactive sites.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Matthew McClure
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
January 31st 2019
Supreme Court of Canada, SCC, Ottawa, Justice

Supreme Court says bankruptcy is no excuse ‘to ignore rules’ in Canadian oilpatch

The Supreme Court of Canada delivered its long-anticipated decision, with important implications for the oilpatch, in Ottawa on Jan. 31, 2019.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Mike De Souza
  • Matthew McClure
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
January 31st 2019
Lexin, Alberta, oil and gas, spill

The damage control from Alberta's oilpatch watchdog is nonsensical

The Alberta Energy Regulator efforts this week at damage control are nonsensical. It’s difficult to overstate the consequences of the predicament that the regulator – assumed to guard the public interest, but long since captured to serve industry – has plunged the province with a staggering unfunded liability for oil and gas cleanup.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Analysis
  • Energy
November 2nd 2018
Brad Herald, vice-president, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Margaret McCuaig-Boyd, Minister of Energy, Jim Ellis, president and CEO, Alberta Energy Regulator.

Alberta targets 'bad actors' in the oilpatch

Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd said during a news conference that the change would have an impact on any operators or oilpatch officials who have a history of going bankrupt and leaving taxpayers with the bill for the cleanup.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Elizabeth McSheffrey
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
December 6th 2017
Gary Smith, Lexin, Alberta

Bankruptcy for profit in Alberta's oilpatch

What followed was more than six months of reckless disregard for the public’s safety that would scarcely seem plausible as a sinister movie plot.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Analysis
  • Energy
  • Politics
September 8th 2017

Massive taxpayer loan to fund cleanup of Alberta's dirty, abandoned oil wells

A $235-million loan from Alberta, financed with $30-million from the federal government, is expected to create 1,650 jobs to clean up some old oil and gas wells.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Colette Derworiz
  • News
  • Energy
  • Politics
May 18th 2017

Ralph Klein's multibillion dollar liability is about to blow up in Alberta's face

The conventional oil and gas industry is leaving a massive mess in Alberta. Regan Boychuk traces how it happened and shows how industry - not taxpayers - should be made to pay.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Analysis
  • Energy
  • Politics
April 3rd 2017
Lexin, Alberta, oil and gas, spill

Who should pay to clean up the oil patch's Alberta mess?

The conventional oil and gas industry is leaving a mess in Alberta. Regan Boychuk traces how it happened and shows how industry - not taxpayers - should be made to pay.
Legacy of liabilities
By
  • Regan Boychuk
  • Analysis
  • Energy
March 31st 2017

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