Are Alberta’s oilsands a resource asset or a devastating environmental liability? A source of national pride, or embarrassment?
Tune in to Corus radio Tuesday evening, Oct. 7 for a two-hour special on how to approach Canada’s bitumen riches: “Canadians Talk…The Oil Sands. At what cost?”
Vancouver: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. on CKNW AM 980
Edmonton: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. 630 CHED
Calgary: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. Newstalk 770
Winnipeg: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. 680 CJOB
Toronto: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. on AM 640
Hamilton: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. on AM900 CHML
London: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. on AM 980
The debate has raged both within Canada and internationally: Is bitumen dirtier than other forms of oil? Is rail transport safer than pipelines? How much risk should other provinces shoulder – and how much reward should they get – for bitumen trekked through their territory?
In the past year and a half, globalnews.ca has dug deep into Canada’s Crude Awakening:
Interactive: 37 years of Alberta oil spills
Alberta’s had an average of two crude oil spills a day, every day for the past 37 years.
That makes 28,666 crude oil spills in total, plus another 31,453 spills of just about any other substance you can think of putting in a pipeline – from salt water to liquid petroleum.
Human cost: What it’s like when oil runs through your backyard
The road to Sundre, Alberta rises and falls through a landscape of low hills and farmland, the Rocky Mountains visible far off to the west.
And everywhere you look, you see the oil industry.
Sleepy watchmen: How vigilant are Alberta’s energy regulators?
Alberta prides itself on a robust oversight system when it comes to the province’s economic lifeblood.
But is it enforcing those regulations?
Where they happen, who’s in charge and what comes next.
Oil by rail: It’s bigger than ever – but how safe is it?
What happens if you stop a pipeline?
Economic catastrophe, say some. Environmental salvation, others argue.
But so far, one of the most immediate impacts of delayed or stymied pipelines is more oil transported by other methods.
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway: Now things get interesting
The federal government’s approval of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipelineis somewhat anticlimactic: It’s been expected since a Joint Review Panel gave the project a green light (with 209 conditions) late last year.
But now the gloves come off: A quintet of lawsuits seeking to overturn that review panel decision, put on hold in light of Ottawa’s pending decision, is poised to recommence, likely amid more litigation taking issue with the decision itself.
Canadian Natural Resources, Ltd: Steaming may have caused endless Cold Lake spills, company admits
For the first time, Canadian Natural Resources, Ltd. has admitted a series of never-ending spills on its property could be caused, or at least exacerbated, by its own high-pressure steaming.
Here’s what happens when you ask Transport Canada about rail safety reforms
Last week’s train derailment in New Brunswick, following which cars of crude oil and propane burned for days, left many wanting more information on Transport Canada’s track record on rail safety.
After all, successive audits have recommended better oversight. And Transport Minister Lisa Raitt vowed changes in the wake of Lac-Megantic’s fatal derailment.
So how are they doing? Good luck finding out.
The Alberta energy regulator’s review of pipeline safety, commissioned after multiple pipeline accidents in 2011 and 2012, was explicitly designed to not look at any pipeline incidents or investigations. And regulator officials regularly communicated with reviewers to ensure this did not happen.
Five months (and counting) into CNRL spill, questions around more wasn’t done after 2009 leak
A series of spills in northern Alberta is still oozing bitumen more than five months after the leaks began. And with no end in sight, Alberta’s Environment Ministry has taken what it says is an unprecedented step, asking Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to partially drain an oil-soaked water body before it freezes this winter and traps a bitumen gash underneath it.
CNRL says the problem is mechanical failure from old boreholes underground. But the province took issue with that explanation after a similar spill at the same site in 2009.
Alberta pipeline safety: Watching the watchers who watch pipeline-watchers
Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes has been getting a rough ride lately over his pipeline safety review.
Commissioned in July, 2012, completed in December and made public the following August, the 54-page report compared Alberta’s pipeline regulations to those of other jurisdictions. Turns out they stack up well.
It did not, however, look at whether those rules are being followed and enforced.
Nor did it look at any actual pipeline incidents.
Ill Wind: Alberta families leaving home for health reasons blame the oil giant next door
Alain Labrecque left his grain farm in northern Alberta in December, 2011.
He, his wife Karla and his two young children, now aged 6 and 5, packed up and eventually settled in Smithers, B.C.
They hadn’t planned to move. But their home was making them sick, Labrecque says.
“We started getting dizzy and getting headaches. We just couldn’t shake it,” he said. “It came all at once” – in 2010, after an oil company expanded operations around the family’s farm southeast of Peace River.
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