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Oil and gas companies are walking away from their taxes, rents, and cleanup costs. Their lawlessness threatens our land, water, and communities.
The Problem
Nearly 480,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in Alberta—one for every ten people in the province.
Almost 330,000 of those need to be cleaned up NOW or in the near future.
Now the Alberta government has a new plan to saddle the public with the industry’s multi-billion dollar cleanup.
Wells leaking toxic waste
Aging wells leak toxins into the air, soil, and groundwater, threatening the health of families, water, and livestock.
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All wells leak as they age – it’s a question of when, not if
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Non-producing wells are a major source of methane leaks, as well as cancer-causing benzene and sour gas (which can be fatal)
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Across Alberta, families and animals are increasingly exposed to these toxins
“I went to see my wife and she says: 'I bent down and I got dizzy.' We went downstairs and you could smell the gas.” Nobody stayed to make sure that we were going to be safe.
- Ron, affected landowner, Falher Alberta
Hundreds of millions in unpaid bills
Almost 600 oil and gas companies are refusing to pay their landowner rents and municipal taxes, shifting hundreds of millions in costs onto the public.
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Taxpayers have already covered over $150 million in surface rent compensation to landowners on behalf of industry
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Alberta municipalities are owed over $254 million by oil and gas companies
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These unpaid bills are often from operational companies – the industry is increasingly treating taxes and rent as ‘optional’
“I've got a municipality up in the north that's owed 34% of their revenue from one company's unpaid taxes."
Billions in cleanup costs
Cleanup costs for oil & gas wells in Alberta will cost at least $80 billion, according to published estimates.
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Now the Alberta government and industry CEOs want to saddle taxpayers with the cleanup bill.
“I'm accountable for the decisions I make on my farm. Good or bad, I suffer the consequences, I pay the costs. When it comes to the oil patch, it seems like there are no rules for them.”
- Ron, affected landowner, Falher Alberta
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Independent researchers used internal AER documents to calculate an average estimated cleanup cost for the province’s oil and gas wells of $55 billion in 2019
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Adjusted for inflation, that cleanup estimate is over $80 billion today; that amount is for wells only, not pipelines or facilities
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The Alberta Energy Regulator and Orphan Well Association only require industry to set aside a tiny fraction of these cleanup costs
The Alberta government's Mature Asset Strategy will grow the crisis
Instead of forcing the industry to pay for cleanup, Alberta’s government is pushing a new plan that could put taxpayers on the hook for billions in cleanup costs. The so-called Mature Asset Strategy (MAS) was developed by and for industry insiders.
Key recommendations in the Mature Asset Strategy seem designed to let industry abandon its cleanup responsibilities, with the public picking up the tab. The MAS appears to:
Weaken well reclamation standards
New recommendations on “risk-based closure” invites industry to weigh in on which cleanup standards they find onerous or overly expensive.
Create new entities (ClosureCo and HarvestCo) to absorb distressed wells and shift cleanup from industry to the public
Legal experts call the new entities “another way to socialize the industry’s losses and defeat the polluter pays principle.”
Asks landowners and municipalities to “take a haircut” on billions they’re owed by industry
The MAS avoids enforcement of unpaid bills in favor of more time spent on new working groups and consultations.
Government revenues should go towards schools, hospitals, and the things our communities need, not a bailout for companies that broke their promises. Together, we can stop the Mature Asset Strategy.
“[The MAS] is a strategy for industry, not for landowners"
- Bill Heidecker, President of the Alberta Surface Rights Federation
Albertans clean up after themselves.
So should oil and gas.
Join thousands of Albertans who are fed up, and taking action to stop the oil and gas industry from dining on profits – then dashing on their cleanup bills.
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