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Lax oversight not enough. Oil sands miners want to skip environmental assessments.
By Alan Septoff
Friday, October 02, 2009
In the October 2nd Globe and Mail:
Under a major new rule change being considered by Alberta’s Environment Ministry, an impact assessment – a massive document that looks at a project’s effects on forests and wildlife and other environmental factors – may no longer be required for most new in situ oil sands projects. Instead, industry would agree to abide by a “code of practice,” similar to the rules governing companies that drill wells for conventional light oil.
It’s self-evident why this is justified I guess: clearly an industry that has yet to fully reclaim an oil sands operation, and leaks approximately 11 million liters of tailings per day into North America’s second largest watershed, is an industry that should be exempted from already weak environmental scrutiny.
Tagged with: alberta, regulation
