City cashes in on well reclamation fund
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A map provided by the Alberta s Energy Ministry shows sites in southeastern Alberta that are part the Site Reclamation Program. Green dots represent oil and gas well sites currently undergoing environmental reclamation, while red denotes work to remove petroleum infrastructure prior to work to reclaim land. SUPPLIED IMAGE
The City of Medicine Hat’s effort to abandon gas wells has now received $5 million from a federal program to help provinces tackle the problem while putting oilfield service companies to work.
That information comes Friday as Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage detailed the new phases of the program that totals $1 billion in the province.
EDMONTON — Alberta and the federal government say another $400 million in funding is available to help clean up inactive oil and gas sites in the province. The money includes $100 million for clean up in Indigenous communities. The rest of the money is.
Share Alberta reversed course on its plans to allow for surface coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rockies earlier this week, but that doesn t mean the region won t face any pressure from coal developments. Photo: Shutterstock
Explainer
9 things that haven’t changed since Alberta’s about-face on coal mining policy
The United Conservative Party was backed into a corner on its decision to open up the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to open-pit mines. But it hasn t completely abandoned its push to allow more coal projects in the province 9 min read
let’s-see-if-we-can-slip-this-one-past-them coal policy change last May.
The highly unpopular premier also characterized opponents of coal mining as urban snobs even though the majority of the opposition has come from his party’s angry base: ranchers, farmers, landowners and rural towns and municipalities.
The government’s abrupt change of course follows weeks of protests from hundreds of thousands of Albertans from all walks of life and all political parties.
They raised concerns about water security, selenium pollution (a legacy of open-pit coal mines), and the future of the province’s iconic eastern slopes.
Landowner and conservation groups greeted today’s announcement with skepticism.
“I’d call my response very guarded,” said Renie Blades, a third-generation rancher in Alberta’s foothills.
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