RStar

Direction from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to her new energy minister suggests the United Conservative government hasn't given up on a controversial program that would see taxpayers backstop the cleanup of old oil and gas wells that companies are already legally required to do.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's last budget before an expected spring election gives strong support to a proposed tax break for energy companies to fulfil their legal cleanup duties but doesn't tell voters how much would be spent on it.

Oilpatch support for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's agenda ballooned after she won her party's leadership and put the so-called RStar program — a plan to give tax breaks to energy companies for fulfilling cleanup work they are already obliged to do — high on the government agenda.

Alberta's United Conservative Party government is facing growing criticism for a plan to give oil companies a royalty credit for cleaning up their old wells.

Alberta's New Democrat Opposition wants public consultations on a government plan that would subsidize oil and gas companies to fulfil legal commitments to clean up old wells, a major proponent of which has been working directly in Premier Danielle Smith's office for months.

Alberta's new energy minister has promised to maintain an order protecting the Rocky Mountains in the province from coal development, for now.

Critics fear Alberta's new United Conservative premier is preparing to bring in a program that would use billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded royalty breaks to subsidize energy companies to fulfil their legal duty and clean up old wells.