Category: Environmental Page 7 of 53

In a post back in May 2021, I complained about a change to Alberta’s Mine Financial Security Program (MFSP). This is a follow-up post in response to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) posting the annual submissions under the program on September 30, 2021. Note that each annual submission is for the September of the previous year, so the 2021 report is relevant to the situation in September 2020.

The MFSP is Alberta’s system for ensuring that companies pay for the reclamation and remediation of their mines, both oilsands and coal (but not conventional oil and gas, which is handled by a different liability management system that also does not work properly). In short, the MFSP allows companies to use an asset safety factor against their estimated future environmental liabilities, such that if a mine’s resource assets are worth more than three times the total anticipated reclamation costs (3:1), nothing beyond an initial (and wholly inadequate) ‘base deposit’ is required, provided also that the planned reclamation is conducted as scheduled, and the mine has more than 15 years of reserves remaining. Companies may also choose to skip those calculations and pay full security based on an estimate of the total cost of clean-up.

Province Issues Request for Expressions of Interest for Carbon Sequestration Hub Proposals

By Nigel Bankes

On September 23, 2021

In Carbon Capture and Storage, Environmental

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Province Issues Request for Expressions of Interest for Carbon Sequestration Hub Proposals

Documents Commented On: Request for Expressions of Interest for Carbon Sequestration Hub Proposals, September 9, 2021 and Carbon Sequestration Tenure Management

In early May of this year, the Department of Energy issued Information Letter 2021-19 on Carbon Sequestration Tenure Management. In that letter, the Department indicated that it would be calling for proposals for sequestration hubs by “late spring” (at 2). I commented on the Information Letter here. Well, late spring morphed into late summer, and a call for proposals morphed into a Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) with the expectation that a Request for Full Project Proposals (RFPP) will be posted in December of this year and successful proponents selected by the end of March 2022 (Alberta Energy web page).

Beyond Carbon Pricing: An Assessment of the Major Parties’ Other Environmental Policies

By Martin Olszynski

On September 15, 2021

In Environmental

By: Martin Olszynski and Sharon Mascher

PDF Version: Beyond Carbon Pricing: An Assessment of the Major Parties’ Other Environmental Policies

Matter Commented On: Secure the Future (Conservative Party of Canada); Forward, For Everyone (Liberal Party of Canada); Ready For Better (New Democratic Party); Be Daring (Green Party of Canada)

Climate change is widely recognized as the most important environmental problem facing humanity. Indeed, in its recent opinion upholding the constitutionality of the federal Liberals’ carbon pricing regime, the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged not only that climate change is real and caused by human activity, but also that “it poses a grave threat to humanity’s future” (References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11 (CanLII) at para 2). The unsurprising result is that climate change now dominates environmental law and policy discourse. Indeed, at times – such as the current election period – it feels like climate policy has displaced all other environmental policy entirely. As one manifestation of this, Canadian voters have access to several independent and expert assessments of the parties’ climate policies (see here, here, here, and here), but very little with respect to the parties’ remaining environmental commitments. This post is intended to help remedy that situation by focusing on the non-climate aspects of each of the major federal parties’ environmental policies. We do also provide some relatively minor commentary on those aspects of the parties’ climate policies that we feel haven’t been sufficiently addressed.

Conflating Dissent with Disloyalty, Allan Inquiry sets a Dangerous Precedent

By Martin Olszynski

On July 30, 2021

In Energy, Environmental

By: Martin Z. Olszynski

PDF Version: Conflating Dissent with Disloyalty, Allan Inquiry sets a Dangerous Precedent

Matter Commented On: The Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns

It’s late fall 2022. A popular mayor of a southern Alberta town wakes up to a peculiar email: the Second Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns has reviewed several news reports from 2020 and 2021, as well as his social media account, and has determined that he engaged in an “anti-Alberta energy campaign.”

Just a bit down the highway, a popular Alberta country singer finds a similar email. They’ve each been given two weeks to respond. Confused, each writes back to the Inquiry to insist that they’re absolutely not anti-Alberta: they’re proud Albertans who care deeply about its lands and waters, especially the eastern slopes of the Rockies and the vital headwaters found there.

Justice for the Westslope Cutthroat Trout at Grassy Mountain

By Shaun Fluker

On July 19, 2021

In Environmental, Protection of Species

By: Shaun Fluker

PDF Version: Justice for the Westslope Cutthroat Trout at Grassy Mountain

Decision Commented On: Report of the Joint Review Panel: Benga Mining Limited Grassy Mountain Coal Project, 2021 ABAER 010

On June 17, 2021, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) denied an application by Benga Mining Limited under the Coal Conservation Act, RSA 2000, c C-17, for approvals to construct, operate and reclaim an open-pit metallurgical coal mine (along with associated processing, transportation and related infrastructure) on the montane and subalpine lands of Grassy Mountain in the Crowsnest Pass region of southwestern Alberta. The application was considered by a federal-provincial joint review panel governed by terms of reference established under the Responsible Energy Development Act, SA 2012, c R-17.3, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012, SC 2012, c 19, s 52 (CEAA 2012), terms which instructed the panel to exercise AER decision-making authority under the Coal Conservation Act and assess the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the project under various provincial statutes and CEAA 2012 (the federal registry for the environmental impact assessment is here). The panel’s decision consists of a whopping 3072 paragraphs (631 pages not including appendices). This comment focuses on the AER portion of this decision, and in particular just one aspect of this decision: the confrontation between coal development and preservation of the threatened Alberta population of westslope cutthroat trout (WSCT) along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. This comment is not reviewing the CEAA 2012 findings and recommendations because, as the panel indicates at paragraph 3066, without the provincial authorizations the project cannot proceed.

Category: Environmental Page 7 of 53

Another Year Gone Under the Mine Financial Security Program

Province Issues Request for Expressions of Interest for Carbon Sequestration Hub Proposals

Beyond Carbon Pricing: An Assessment of the Major Parties’ Other Environmental Policies

Conflating Dissent with Disloyalty, Allan Inquiry sets a Dangerous Precedent

Justice for the Westslope Cutthroat Trout at Grassy Mountain