Oil Sands Environmental Monitoring is a Priority for Albertans

We Albertans own the oil sands.  They are becoming increasingly concerned about how this vital resource is being developed in our name.  There is a very clear set of priorities to guide and drive the development of the oil sands from the values research Cambridge Strategies has done in conjunction with the U of A based Oil Sand Research and Information Network.  

Environmental monitoring of oil sands development is one of the top three most important value concerns of Albertans.  Reclamation and habitat protection are the others followed by greenhouse gas emissions and water usage.

It is encouraging to see the federal and Alberta government getting together to address this concern.  The disgraced provincial water monitoring approach of oil sands has been abandoned.  Now we see the federal government pushing ahead with the announcement of a $20million Lower Athabasca Water Quality Monitoring Program.

The Alberta government is now effectively engaged in this ecological monitoring responsibility now as well and in collaboration with the federal government and industry.   Environment Minister Rob Renner acknowledges that the environment is a shared constitutional responsibility with the federal government saying some monitoring will be fed lead and others will be a major Alberta responsibility.

This is very encouraging but we need this work to be evidence based done by independent expert scientists.  We must keep all politicians in all orders of government out of the processes and reporting.  We need open access to the data and peer reviewed reporting of findings as well as full disclosure of the implications of findings and recommendations that come out of the water monitoring.

We can't trust the politicians not to interfere with this work for political purposes.  We also can't trust industry to self monitor or to control the environmental monitoring agenda. This water monitoring has to be done collaboratively between governments and in conjunction with industry.  That seems to be the case now and I am most encouraged by how this is coming together between the two orders of government and the involvement of industry.

Travis Davies of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers speaking on behalf of the industry hits a few key points going forward saying: "We are happy to be judged by good science.  We think it's a very important piece of where we want to go, which is long-term, responsible development."  (emphasis added)  CAPP goes even  further to properly frame the water monitoring initiative saying "We're certainly willing to pay our share, provided that governments collaborate and that the final product is effective, efficient and avoids duplication." (emphasis added again).

I am not a big fan of those who think government should be run more like a business.  They are very different animals and government is more often more complex than most businesses.  That said, I add the emphasis in the CAPP quotes because they underscore some necessary lessons governments can learn from the oil sands business. I applaud the CAPP emphasis on science based, long-term approach to responsible development done with an collaborative, effective, efficient approach that avoids duplication by governments.  I also add a caution to avoid gaps in the monitoring approach too.  That was a major problem with the former discredited Alberta water monitoring work.

Albertans should be pleased with this new approach to ecological monitoring by governments and industry.  We overwhelming believe (89%) that the oil sands are important to our future prosperity.  We don't trust federal or provincial politicians to manage this resource responsibly.  We strongly believe (87%) that industry must be held responsible for any ecological damage it does from oil sands development.  About 2/3 of Albertans accept some degree of federal role in the oil sands.  So this collaborative inter-governmental ecological involvement in oil sands will not offend Albertans.  But some actions and attitudes by government approach to oil sands development will offend us.

The entire field of ecological monitoring of the oil sands has to be done independent of government and industry interference and with a long-term view not tied to any investment interests, political agendas or election cycles.  The duty to ensure responsible development of the oil sands is a shared function of the federal and provincial governments along with industry.  Albertans own this vital resource and we need to ensure it is exploited in a integrated responsible way. We need to see oil sands developed with an integrated economic, environmental, social, political and cultural perspective, not just jobs and investment.

We need to look at governments as our property managers and industry as our contractors to grow the wealth from this asset.  We need to make all of them accountable to the greater good of all Albertans, including future generations, not just shareholders, bankers and other economic stakeholders.  There is a lot of fixing that has to be done to return the confidence and pride of Albertans about oil sands development. The joint effort this water monitoring heralds is a strong and positive step in the right direction.

Stelmach Goes Green - Big Time With Big Money.

I have not had a chance to digest the $4B scope and scale of the climate change policy announcement made by Premier Stelmach on July 8. Today I took some time and I have to say I am impressed on the Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) and the significant public transit investment. The news release, backgrounder and video of the announcement are worth reading and watching.

The top GOA priority is to “Ensure Alberta’s energy resources are developed in an environmentally sustainable way.” The mandate bullets in that priority include to “Implement carbon capture and storage research and demonstration projects (and to) Implement the climate strategy, including conservation, energy efficiency and adaptation initiatives.”

This announcement not only aligns with and delivers on these priorities; it surpasses some of them by not merely doing research on CCS, it is getting right into the action and investing serious sums in projects. The value-add of enhanced oil recovery (EOR)from injecting CO2 into conventional wells is estimated to recover up to 2B barrels of oil without further drilling or fragmentation of the land with roads and seismic lines. I hope they only allow EOR for those producers that are the best stewards in the oil patch and who have the best records for reclamation of abandoned well site and roads as preconditions to playing in the EOR opportunities.

Some will be critical and others will be cynical but at least they are contributing to the conversation about conservation and mitigation of our carbon footprint in Alberta. I am a partisan and support the PC Party, most of the time, but not all of the time. On this one initiative I whole-heartedly applaud the effort.

I think this policy pronouncement will add to transferable technological innovations and new adaptations in energy production as well as addressing emissions issues. I heard Environment Minister Rob Renner say in the announcement video that Alberta will move beyond intensity emissions and “reduce real emissions by 2020.” That is the kind of serious and significant commitment we need to have our government take. He has said all along that intensity measures of GHG emissions were interim measures only and we would get to absolutes emission reductions. He has set the date to get that done and while it is 12 year out that is pretty impressive given the size, scope and scale of development going on in Alberta these days.

The public transit aspects are equally as exciting as they encourage creativity and adaptability in how we respond to the growing economic and population needs in our cities, large and small. Again we see a serious effort to shrink the carbon footprint of the province.

Dirty oil and dead ducks in toxic tailing ponds and a sense that Albertans are greedy and indifferent to the environment is the growing sentiment in many parts of the world. This announcement, if executed rightly and rapidly will not change that image by itself, but it will be a profound and resonant rebuttal of the damaging presumption about Albertans that exists in too many minds of too many people in the world today.

CalgaryGrit: Stelmach's Environment Minister calls for a new NEP - I DON'T THINK SO!

Tip of the Hat to the CalgaryGrit for posting a video clip of Rob Renner, Alberta's Minister of the Environment.

Rob Renner's comments in the CalgaryGrit posted video clip and the reference to CEMA proposal have nothing remotely to do with the NEP, as the "Grit" would have you believe.

However this video clip of Renner is a great example of why I think Renner is a great Minister of the Environment for Alberta. We need him back in that job right after tomorrow nights election results.

Pembina Institute Poll Shows Albertans Reject Intensity Targets for GHGs

While one can argue over the sample size of only 500, the results are so conclusive that margin of error makes no difference in the final result of some key findings of the Pembina Institute recently sponsored poll.

One finding from the poll is being billed in the Blogs as Albertans rejecting John Blair’s green efforts on intensity standards for GHG emissions. The polls shows that 70 per cent of Albertans support absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, compared to 20 per cent who support intensity-based targets. So much for the caricature of the ugly Albertan too often seen as the non-caring capitalists, especially in relation to Canada’s environment.

In fact my firm did some in depth values based research for the forestry industry in the fall of 2005 with over 3000 participants in Alberta. We found then that 84% of Albertan’s believed that environmental protection had to trump economic growth. More information on our work for the Alberta forest industry is at http://www.yourforest.org/, if you are interested.

Alberta’s Minister of the Environment, Rob Renner, says intensity standards for GHG emissions are only interim measures and legislated absolute emission targets are the goal. I wonder if the Federal Minister of the environment, John Baird is on the same page and I surly hope so.

As for nuclear energy as a heat source in Alberta, some rumblings of using geothermal are also out and about. I would think that solution presents more benefit economically, environmentally and even in terms of reliability and safety that nuclear.

I don’t know who is behind the nuclear option scenario and have no problem that it be investigated. The Albert PC party wants the Alberta government to look at nuclear as an option. I hope the Alberta government looks at geothermal as an option to natural gas and nuclear at the same time and with equal or greater enthusiasm.

Hancock Meets Clement; Renner Meets Baird and Boutilier Briefs Stelmach

Interesting developments in the offing on the fed-prov front with a raft of new meetings. The Alberta and Federal Ministers of Environment (Renner and Baird) and Health (Hancock and Clement) Ministers are about to meet. These meetings include provincial Ministers who are not the rookies in Cabinet but the issues are serious and they represent the top two priority issues facing the country. No indication yet as to the agendas will be but given the times and the pressures, they will likely be significant…especially with all the elections coming in the near future.

Interesting that Prime Minister Harper is giving a major speech tomorrow to the Canadian Club in Ottawa. This is just before the Council of the Federation First Minister's conference call on Wednesday. Harper's presentation is being billed as "equivalent to a Throne Speech." You can't tell me that is coincidence. Curious as to what he has to say, especially to the Premiers in this speech. My guess is they are his primary intended audience.

The Council of the Federation meeting scheduled for Feb 7 has been reduced to a conference call due to scheduling problems. Too bad because it would have been interesting to see how new Premier Stelmach would make out on his debut First Ministers meetings. I would be anxious, at many levels, to see how Premier Stelmach would be served by his newly minted Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Guy (Alberta as the Bad Boy of Confederation) Boutilier. Stelmach has done this Intergovernmental job, and by all accounts was pretty good at it so his expectations of his new Minister will be very high.

Speaking of Minister Boutilier, we see he is about to be seized with a challenge on the aboriginal aspect of his portfolio. The foster child care for aboriginal children have seen Grand Chief Phil Fontaine make demands for better responses to the needs of aboriginal children at risk. Given that the issue is receiving front page coverage, it would not be a surprise if this was a “walk on” agenda item at the First Ministers meeting on Wednesday.

The usual fed-prov posturing can be expected but it will sure be disappointing if all we see is finger pointing. The turmoil caused by a tragic death of a 3 year old boy in Alberta’s foster care guarantee serious media scrutiny on the foster care concerns for aboriginal children. How will Alberta, namely Minister Boutilier, respond? Will Alberta actually engage and work with their Conservative brethren on this issue? The good news is Jim Prentice, the most competent of all the federal Ministers, is on the Canada side of the issue.

Let’s hope we don’t see a classic case of over promising and under delivering that seems dog the Boutilier political approach. For example, looking at his past musing on the twinning of highway 63 to Fort McMurray one has to wonder if his motivation is always just purely political and power plays.

Media reports recently say he was assuring the Fort McMurray folks the road twinning could be done in 3 years. But that was when he was a Cabinet Minister supporting Lyle Oberg, the then Infrastructure Minister, and PC Party leadership bid. Oberg is the same Minister who was turfed from caucus by his colleagues for accusing them of having political skeletons (which he failed to prove) and for using (abusing?) his portfolio to advance his leadership aspirations last spring. Well the reality sets in now that the need for hype has passed and the twinning looks like it is now stretching out to seven years and counting.

Harsh reality and patience are the defining characteristics of the good folks of Wood Buffalo and the city of Fort McMurray in particular. How much long do the citizens of Fort McMurray have to suffer? And at so may levels and in so many ways and in the face of so much growth pressure?