{"id":47905,"date":"2025-03-18T14:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/?p=47905"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:10:21","slug":"industry-shift-onus-well-cleanup-to-the-taxpayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environmentaldefence.ca\/2025\/03\/18\/industry-shift-onus-well-cleanup-to-the-taxpayer\/","title":{"rendered":"STATEMENT: Industry Recommendations Shift Onus for Well Cleanup to the Taxpayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Legault, Senior Manager, Alberta Energy Transition response to a report made public in the Globe and Mail concerning a government report that proposes the Alberta public must now assume responsibility for cleaning up \u201cmature\u201d oil and gas wells across the province<\/em><\/p>\n

Canmore | Traditional territories of the Treaty 7 Nations \u2013\u00a0Secretive plans reveal a strategy more damaging to Alberta than the R-Star controversy championed by Premier Danielle Smith when she worked for the oil and gas industry before becoming Premier.<\/p>\n

A secretive group of insiders led by David Yagger, an advisor to both oil and gas businesses and the Premier,\u00a0 is recommending a transfer of reclamation responsibilities to taxpayers, instead of the industry, who are currently making billions in profits. This is deeply disturbing. The public should not have to be on the hook to clean up the industry\u2019s mess.<\/p>\n

How can Albertans trust the Premier to make decisions in the best interest of the province when she is handing responsibility for the industry over to the industry itself?<\/p>\n

The premier must fire David Yager right now, and come clean with Albertans. The government must toss this report and its ideas in the trash, and hold polluters accountable to clean up after themselves, and to pay their rent and taxes.<\/p>\n

Not only would these recommendations to the Premier and her Cabinet put the fox among the hens, but it would rob the farmer from any meaningful recourse.<\/p>\n

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