The Big Cleanup: How enforcing the Polluter Pay principle can unlock Alberta's next great jobs boom

Description

Using the AER's own data, our report reveals that 4 out of 5 unreclaimed oil and gas wells in Alberta are already past their economic limit, the "best before date" where they still have enough future revenue coming out of the ground to fund their own cleanup. We explore the story of one of them—drilled more than 30 years ago on our co-author's family's land—to demonstrate how companies are able to profit for decades without setting aside anything for cleanup. Digging deeper, we reveal that an astonishing 49% of oil and gas companies licensed by the regulator are classified as insolvent through the Licensee Liability Rating system.