| Landowner groups are criticizing the provincial government for rubber-stamping controversial coal bed methane development before public consultation has been completed and adequate regulations are in place.
This week, the government released its Strategic Business Plan, which states; "the government will actively encourage the extraction of coal bed methane" in order to offset declining conventional natural gas reserves.
Meanwhile, public consultation on the issue has just started in the province and a multi-stakeholder group has just begun looking at what regulations are needed for the fledgling industry. Coal bed methane involves drilling into coal formations and extracting natural gas trapped within coal seams.
"Isn’t it interesting that the government is ‘actively encouraging’ it and they have no regulations in place?" says Karl Zajes, consultant with the Alberta Surface Rights Federation.
Zajes says he doesn’t believe the government has any commitment to public consultation on the issue.
"I don’t believe this government," he says. "This government and the oil and gas industry act like a pimp and a prostitute…. They grab the money and run."
A spokesperson for the provincial government didn’t return phone calls to comment on the issue before press time.
Coal bed methane development is just getting started in Alberta, but in Colorado and Wyoming there’s been large public outcry against the industry due to widespread environmental problems. More than 1,000 experimental coal bed methane wells have already been drilled in Alberta and two companies, MVG Energy and EnCana, have announced they will start commercial development. Zajes says he’s worried about the industry being so close to development while public consultation is just starting.
"We’re still left in the dark and fed a lot of BS," says Zajes.
In order to extract the natural gas from coal, more wells must be drilled than conventional natural gas extraction – up to 16 wells on a quarter section of land (about 65 hectares), according to Zajes, as well as building roads, pipelines and compressor stations.
As well, coal bed methane development could contaminate groundwater and soil, and destroy underground aquifers.
Chris Severson-Baker, of the environmental organization Pembina Institute, is critical of the government’s public consultation process.
"The timeline is… too quick to design policies to prevent the concerns from places where coal bed methane is a full-fledged industry," he says.
Severson-Baker says he thinks public consultation should have started sooner and the government has finally decided to do it now because "enough people are getting up in arms about it."
Mary Griffiths, an environmental policy analyst for the Pembina Institute, says she doesn’t believe that coal bed methane development in Alberta will run into the same problems as Colorado and Wyoming because of differences in coal formations and rules regarding the disposal of saline water. But she says there’s cause for concern if the entire industry isn’t properly regulated.
"(In some areas) we may have to decide water is more important than coal bed methane development," she says.
Deciding against developing coal bed methane development will be a tough decision for the government to make because it could be extremely lucrative, says Griffiths. The Alberta Geological Survey recently published a study saying there could be as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Alberta’s coal seams.
"In Alberta, if things make economic sense, they usually go ahead," says Griffiths. "We have to ensure there are sufficient regulations in place." |
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