Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board talks tough

Policing the petroleum industry ramps up as federal and provincial leaders in Canada talk about a clean energy platform

By Gordon Jaremko

May 01, 2009

Ottawa and Alberta are for once speaking the same language. Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice says: “We have very strong environmental legislation in Canada. I don’t think there’s any doubt.”

Since mid-2008, Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board has made two moves to tighten up protection of wildlife and water in the oil sands. New rules requiring cleanups of bitumen mine tailings ponds are going into force. Next, under a draft directive unveiled in February, come controls on water use by in-situ underground extraction projects using wells and steam injections.

But the oil sands are not the only part of the industry facing sterner supervision. Nor is the ERCB the sole agency involved.

Under a recent decision by co-operating federal and Alberta authorities, EnCana Corp. was barred at least temporarily from drilling in a spot that has been a cornerstone of its growth into Canada’s top natural gas producer for 34 years. In an Alberta Oil interview, Prentice called the ruling an “important” and “extremely well-written” regulatory landmark. “It pointed the way forward.”

EnCana was denied permission to start a $233-million program of drilling 1,275 shallow gas wells and laying 220 kilometers of pipelines on southeastern Alberta plains known as the Suffield Block. The drilling was forecast to produce 125 billion cubic feet of gas, or enough to heat 80,000 homes for a decade.

The Alberta Wilderness Association declared victory on behalf of an environmental coalition that fought the plan through more than a year of preliminary wrangling then a month of public hearings last fall. “It does represent a certain turning point that we can actually have a fairly substantial development essentially put on ice,” the association said.

The ruling was handed down by an institution that did not exist when EnCana’s ancestor, Alberta Energy Co., got its start as a gas producer on the Suffield Block. The decision came from a joint review panel appointed by the federal and provincial governments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Members included former ERCB chairman Gerry DeSorcy.

As the latest round in a contest between forces of development and preservation that has spread from Alberta’s northern oil sands to its gas-rich southern plains, the ruling sent a message to industry that times are changing.

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