abandoned 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.

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.

RenuWell project sites near Taber are set to produce enough electricity to power 280 average households by October.

“Come for a coffee, we’ll have it inside,” Norfolk County resident Paula Jongerden says with a laugh. But she’s not joking. She lives about 300 metres from an old oil well that routinely belches foul-smelling odours.

Quebec became the first jurisdiction in the world Tuesday to explicitly ban oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups.

The putrid smell makes Paula Jongerden sick to her stomach. It comes from a natural gas well about 300 metres from her home near Delhi, Ont., that erupts at least twice a week.

A new report from the University of Calgary says inactive wells increased by more than 50 per cent between 2015 and 2020. The Alberta Energy Regulator expects another 6,014 of them in 2021.

The amount of unpaid property taxes that oil and gas companies owe Alberta rural municipalities has more than doubled over the last year, a trend some are calling a tax revolt.

According to the regulator, Lexin has failed to comply with multiple orders and doesn't have enough staff to manage its more than 1,600 sites.

Pipelines and other energy infrastructure will be rated based on risk: "That's going to take us a little bit of time."