"Environment Canada got pushback," said Bill Donahue, an environmental scientific consultant and former head of monitoring for the Alberta government. "It dramatically reduced the proposed standards in terms of their stringency."
Alberta's energy minister says she has received two reports that will determine the future of coal mining in the province's Rocky Mountain foothills and eastern slopes.
Coal mining on environmentally sensitive slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains wouldn't be an overall benefit to the province, a wide-ranging analysis from the University of Calgary has concluded.
"It was because of the overwhelming response and the need to accommodate that response with extra time that we had to approach the minister with the request for an extension," committee head Ron Wallace said in an interview Tuesday.
Albertans want to talk about a lot more than coal when it comes to development in their beloved Rocky Mountains, says the head of the committee charged with collecting public opinion on the issue.
The company behind a proposed open-pit coal mine in Alberta's Rocky Mountains has filed a request to appeal a decision by a review panel that rejected the project as being not in the public interest.
Environmental groups and First Nations say they are pleased the federal government is adding another proposed coal mine in Alberta's Rocky Mountains to the list of projects it will review.
Two coal companies planning to develop mines in Alberta's Rocky Mountains say they hope to move forward despite new regulatory and political roadblocks.
In its 680-page report released Thursday, the joint federal-provincial panel questioned the ability of Benga Mining, owned by Riversdale Resources, to control the release of selenium from its proposed Grassy Mountain mine.
