Thread by @mark_dorin

Polluter pay. #RealTalkRJ

Just before COVID, co-host @RKBtoo and I held a workshop. We identified unfunded oil & gas liabilities beyond decommissioning and land cleanup costs - over $1/4 Trillion.
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https://1/www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/aldp-workshop-1.5449180

Yesterday a guest on @RealTalkRJ referred to $300 billion in oil & gas liabilities, a figure rounded up FROM OTHER ESTIMATES of $260 billion. $40 billion’s a whack of dough so this caused some criticism.
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WELLS: The reasonable estimate for decommissioning and land cleanup costs for conventional oil & gas wells and sites was pegged in April 2019 at 40-$70 Billion by ALDP. Regulator in house estimate is $62 billion as just disclosed by Auditor General.
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PIPELINES, TAILINGS PONDS, OTHER: Other cleanup costs, to be covered by future profits, for which there is no “Orphan Fund Safety Net”, are estimated to be some $200 million.
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Bottom lines are:

(1) the cost to decommission wells and facilities including cleanup of any contaminants & land restoration is about $70 Billion, where the industry as a whole must pay via the Orphan Fund for any well or facility that no longer has a responsible owner.
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(2) For all other oil & gas liabilities - from cleanup of tailings ponds to payment of landowner compensation until sites are cleaned up to health care costs - there is no citizen safety net like the Orphan Fund.
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Each candidate in the provincial election should be be well informed on these topics. If they’re not or are silent on them, alarm bells should go off because anything other than polluter pay will break the province of Alberta.
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Finally, after this election, I hope all those who are unwilling to pay for the sins of industry and the sins of those corrupted by industry stop quibbling about the ESTIMATED, massive cost, agree it’s massive, and work together to ensure the polluter, not citizens, pay.
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