EDMONTON – A group has delivered petitions with more than 11,000 signatures from residents who are opposed to oil and gas exploration in their city to the Alberta legislature .
Sheila Rogers with “No Drilling Lethbridge” gave the petitions to the city’s MLA, Greg Weadick, on Monday.
Rogers said the group had a massive response to its petition, which calls on the province to prohibit oil and gas drilling within the city.
GoldenKey Oil has secured mineral rights from Alberta Energy in an undeveloped area of southwest Lethbridge but has yet to apply to the Alberta Energy Regulator to drill three oil wells on privately owned land within city limits.
The proposed wells are classified as sour wells, as they would be drilled through a sour geological formation, but would produce from a non-sour zone.
Rogers says the company’s mineral rights lease is set to expire and is up for renewal on March 24.
“The provincial government has been promising a review of urban drilling for at least two years,” said Rogers, “and promised to have a new policy in place by the end of last year. But here we are in March and the government still has yet to deliver on its promise.”
“With no clear policy in place, we and 11,000 of our fellow residents are calling on Minister McQueen to do the right thing and cancel Goldenkey Oil’s license.”
With files from CJOC, and Global News
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