William Marsden’s new book Stupid to the Last Drop is a scathing critique of the Alberta energy sector

Oil is polarizing. As proof, one only needs to look at the debate about how much Albertans should take in energy royalties. The debate has left the realm of the rational and moved mostly into the emotional. Whether the topic is the environment or royalties, it seems few people talk about the energy industry in a way that is informed, fair and insightful.

Montreal author William Marsden has jumped into the shout-fest with his new book Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (and Doesn’t Seem to Care) (Knopf Canada, 256 pp.). It’s a loaded title for a book packed with scathing criticism of the energy industry and the provincial government in Alberta.

“The oil industry is a bunch of dinosaurs here in Alberta,” says Marsden, 56, an investigative reporter with the Montreal Gazette. “You’ve got 99 per cent of the scientists saying (climate change) is a huge issue. You’ve got strange weather patterns affecting this entire world. We have on our doorstep an Arctic that is melting. And you’re trying to tell me that, ‘Hmmm, maybe it’s right, maybe it’s wrong — who knows?’ It’s just ridiculous talking to that kind of mentality.”

Marsden, who’s previously written two books about the Hell’s Angels, decided to look at resource extraction in Alberta because it’s a “fascinating story.” That, and it made him mad. “I usually write about things that make me angry,” he says. “This book is basically a metaphor. Alberta is a metaphor for the whole country. The way we’ve managed our resources in this country is a disgrace.”

As a non-Albertan, Marsden was stunned by what he found in the province. (By now, it’s familiar to many Albertans.) “The first thing that surprised me in Alberta was the almost total disconnect between Albertans and the government,” Marsden says. He saw flammable water coming out of taps on farms near Rosebud, where coalbed methane wells pepper the landscape. (The government blamed the well owners.) He visited the gaping oilsands mines. And he met family physician Dr. John O’Connor, the Fort McMurray whistleblower who’s being slagged for raising concerns about cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan.

He also observed that while people in Alberta were irate about these things, the provincial government was indifferent. Coming to Alberta, he says, was like landing on “an insane planet where everyone’s completely loopy.”

Stupid’s dust jacket describes the book as a “powerful polemic.” Marsden certainly sounds like a polemicist. When asked if he came across any good news stories while researching in Alberta, he answers without hesitation. “Good news? No. I didn’t find any good news stories at all. I didn’t find any sort of success stories. I just felt that we’re in the process of this uncontrolled gorging, this shark-fest feast on the resources of Alberta, and you’ve just let these companies loose.”

Realistically, Marsden’s strident rhetoric is unlikely to win him many converts in Alberta. When I tell him he’ll probably get a poor reception in the oil patch, he remains unconcerned. “I’m not against any of these guys,” he says. “I am against, however, the executives that allow themselves to be dragged into this cosmic wheel of industry first, all the time, and kind of forget their responsibility as human beings. Their moral and ethical responsibility.”