Fort McMurray, Alberta- Just as Canadians are beginning to grasp the massive environmental and social consequences of rapid oilsands development, the federal government has broken with past practice and failed to intervene at the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board panel hearing for a major new oilsands project.
The Suncor Voyageur/Steepbank project now under Board review would increase Suncor's greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 73% by 2020. Suncor's oilsands operations ranked fourth in emissions of greenhouse gases from industrial facilities in Canada in 2004, according to Environment Canada data. Oilsands development is the single largest contributor to growth in Canada's emissions, accounting for up to 47 per cent of the projected increase in national greenhouse gas pollution between 2003 and 2010.
"The lack of a federal presence at these hearings is unprecedented and disturbing," said Chris Severson-Baker, Director of the Energy Watch program at the Pembina Institute. "Federal government agencies have played a critical role in past oilsand mega-project hearings by providing key scientific evidence and rigorously cross-examining the proponent's expert witnesses."
Suncor's failure to take on voluntary greenhouse gas reduction targets means the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) must impose stringent conditions on any approval of the company's planned project expansion, the Oilsands Environmental Coalition will argue in a presentation to the Board's review panel today.
Under cross-examination this week, company executives confirmed that their proposed project will significantly increase Suncor's total greenhouse gas emissions as well as emissions per barrel of oil produced, but declined to take on a voluntary target to offset or capture any of the new emissions the Voyageur/Steepbank project will produce.
At present, there is no clear prospect of federal or provincial regulations limiting the amount of greenhouse gas pollution that heavy industry can emit.
"Suncor has declined to commit to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this project, and the federal government has failed to put in place regulations to control the rapid growth in those emissions," said Marlo Raynolds, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute. "The EUB must not approve this project without stringent conditions that ensure actions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions."
Calculations done by the Oilsands Environmental Coalition (OSEC) show that oilsands producers have the capacity to become "carbon neutral" (reduce their net emissions to zero) by 2020 at the cost of just a few dollars per barrel.
"The lack of clarity around the federal government's climate-change strategy is all the more reason why they should be here," said Myles Kitagawa, Associate Director of the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta. "Furthermore, the federal government has a role in protecting Alberta's wetlands, air quality and boreal forest. This is the wrong time for them to be missing in action."
The Oilsands Environmental Coalition (OSEC) is a coalition of Alberta public interest groups with a longstanding interest in the Athabasca oilsands. OSEC has intervened in the Voyageur/Steepbank project panel hearings to ask that the EUB deny approval of this project, citing serious concerns about the impact on air quality, the boreal forest and climate change
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For more information contact:
Chris Severson-Baker, Pembina Institute
Cell: 403-899-7423
Marlo Raynolds, Pembina Institute
Cell: 403-607-9427
Myles Kitagawa, Toxics Watch Society of Alberta
Cell: 780-907-1231