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Tarred Again: Alberta continues to drop the ball on oilsands monitoring
| Calgary Herald | February 06, 2011
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The Alberta government just can’t seem to get it right when it comes to the oilsands. Its new oilsands environmental advisory panel is a perfect example.
The panel’s makeup, announced last week, was immediately criticized as being heavily represented by industry. The panel’s co-chair, Hal Kvisle, is the former president and chief executive of oilsands pipeline company TransCanada Corp., which is seeking U.S. environmental approval for the $7-billion Keystone XL project to transport bitumen to refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Although retired, Kvisle is still an adviser to the company. Kvisle might be a perfect candidate for the panel. Industry, which has specialized oilsands expertise, deserves a voice. But making Kvisle co-chair was bound to result in an attack on the panel’s credibility. For the government to not see that was a blunder.
Then, even before its first meeting, a U.S. expert on water policy quit the panel. “I am disappointed that there are so few scientists, especially physical scientists, on the panel,” Helen Ingram wrote to Alberta Environment in announcing her resignation. “I know how important to credibility it is to have a balance of disciplines on complex water issues.”
Ingram, a political scientist who once co-authored a paper titled The Political Invasion of Science, expressed concerns about potential ministerial interference and her inability to attend key meetings due to distance. She also feared that the panel may be viewed by aboriginal groups as a “snow job.”
Rob Renner, the Environment Minister, dismissed her concerns, saying they could be worked out. David Schindler, the University of Alberta water expert and frequent oilsands critic, surprisingly backed Renner in a published report that quoted him as saying “I have faith that while few in number, the (academic) bona fides will prevail.”
In addition to Kvisle, the panel includes David Pryce, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the oil industry’s top lobby group, and Bruce Carson, a former policy adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The remainder are academics, including six people with doctorate degrees in the field.
The credibility of an industry-dominated oilsands water monitoring group, the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program (RAMP), was also attacked this week when a peer review of its work found that RAMP met only one of nine objectives related to water quality in the Athabasca region.
The province and the oilsands industry have cited RAMP’s monitoring to bolster their argument that development has no effect on the Athabasca River. Yet, the peer review said RAMP failed to detect and assess cumulative effects of oilsands’ development, collect baseline data or even ask “the appropriate questions.”
The province last week approved its ninth open-pit oilsands development, largely based on RAMP data. Twelve of RAMP’s 22 members are energy companies. Critics argue that the foxes are guarding the henhouse. Thanks to the government’s seeming inability to understand the importance of optics, it’s difficult to disagree.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, alberta, david schindler, water management
