Re: “Alberta is being self-centred,” letter, April 17.
Specious claims and distortion of facts seems to be typical of rants from anti-pipeline advocates, who shout with glee when courts or governments support their views, but cry like babies and throw tantrums when they don’t get their way. The basis of their opposition is premised on many “ifs” and distortion of facts.
Claims that Alberta allowed oil-drillers to walk away from tens of thousands of unrestored drilling sites is both spurious and inflammatory. In fact, in the Redwater case, Alberta’s provincial regulator issued cleanup orders that were overruled by the courts that stipulated sale of assets from bankrupt companies should first go to creditors, not to cleaning up the mess from the company’s operations.
The decision was appealed by the Alberta government but failed when the Alberta Appeal Court, in a split decision, supported the lower court’s decision, saying that federal bankruptcy law takes precedence over provincial environmental rules.
The case of a bankrupt Chinese company, Sequoia Resources, which involved thousands of wells, not tens of thousands, falls into the same orphaned-well category affected by the Redwater decision. Ultimately, the responsibility for cleanup will be decided by the Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear the case.
Alberta spends millions on research into emission-reducing technology, and sees that oil producers employ state-of-the-art emission reducing technology. Alberta has far greater investment in producing alternative forms of energy, including huge wind farms in southern Alberta that are not seen in B.C.
Connor Whelan
Nanaimo
