The regulation of oil sands development has long been a concern for Albertans and Canadians, but it has never been under such intense scrutiny as today.
Federal and provincial government task forces have pushed forward recommendations for bolstering industry oversight. Environment groups have also been contributing their improvement suggestions. Last month Pembina Institute published a set of specific recommendations (PDF) on water and land use and controlling air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Proposed oil sands projects are carefully scrutinized by regulatory authorities.
As the volume of recommendations continues to swell, it could be assumed that oil sands is lightly regulated. Some maybe even think approvals for new developments are simply rubberstamped.
Nothing could be further from the truth. For a start, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), as the primary regulator of Alberta’s energy resources and working in cooperation with the provincial government departments of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, cannot give approval for projects unless operators meet a long list of comprehensive and demanding requirements.
Consider for example what went into securing ERCB approval to expand our mine and construct an upgrader. You can take our word for it. Or, providing you’ve had really strong coffee, you can read the publicly available applications (available upon request from the ERCB). Or, even better, you can check out the new case study (PDF) on the ERCB’s decision to approve our plans.
While not as gripping as a Stieg Larsson novel, the case study has some great information that illustrates the thoroughness of the process. For example:
- Approval took six years from when the projects were announced;
- Before submitting our application, we engaged 12 Aboriginal groups, seven community and regional groups, 13 environment groups, and 37 other groups. At the time we estimated that planning dialogues alone absorbed several thousand hours;
- The project applications filed in March 2005 filled ten large binders and totaled some 4,000 pages;
- The ERCB and Alberta Environment review of our applications generated a further 500 questions each of which had to be individually answered;
- Alberta Environment’s terms and conditions alone covered over 100 pages and included further detailed provisions for wildlife protection.
Don’t get the wrong idea - we are not complaining. This kind of scrutiny is essential, considering what’s at stake. We all know that oil sands development has substantial environment impacts that must be considered and mitigated as much as possible.
Moreover, any regulatory process involving multiple interested parties and so many moving parts can always be improved and it should be. After all, comprehensive regulatory oversight, including determination of the public interest and lessening the impacts of oil sands development, serves everybody well.
