New recommendations made in Alberta’s Mature Asset Strategy report could let big polluters off the hook for billions in cleanup costs — leaving questions about who will now foot the bill a mystery. We think the oil and gas industry should be accountable for cleaning up their own mess.
What’s happening?
In April, the Alberta government published its 52-page Mature Asset Strategy report, after a leaked draft sparked outrage and public opposition.
The report has been widely criticized for quietly shifting the cleanup cost and burden for inactive wells away from industry without clear guidelines on who would pay for these changes. The closed-door consultation process for developing the Mature Asset Strategy was dominated by representatives from the oil and gas industry.
What’s the problem?
- By attempting to shift billions in cleanup costs from industry, the Alberta government is essentially allowing the oil and gas industry to write its own rules (many of which are foreign-owned companies).
- The new Mature Asset Strategy has been criticized for looking like a bailout for an industry that has had record profits — subsidizing billionaires at the expense of average Albertans. In fact, despite record profits for the oil and gas industry, it’s been estimated that paying for the cleanup costs would put each Alberta household on the hook for more than $36,000 in unfunded wellsite and pipeline liabilities.
- We’re in the middle of an affordability crisis, and the Alberta government wants to burden the public and take away protections agreed to by the oil and gas industry, which they are already legally obligated to do. Meanwhile, Alberta schools, hospitals, environmental programs, and other public services are consistently underfunded and unsupported. Taxpayer money should fund public services like healthcare and education, not to clean up the mess that the oil and gas industry has profited from.
- Failing or delaying the cleanup and proper closure of oil and gas wells and infrastructure poses massive threats to the environment, economy, and local communities with the cost for inactive well cleanup in Alberta alone estimated to be between $33.3 billion to $88 billion.
Enough is enough. It’s time for the oil and gas industry to do what it is legally obligated to do — clean up its own mess.
Take action. Email Alberta’s ethics watchdog now.
