Editorial

Oil and water don’t mix

With or without the Kyoto Accord, governments seem to be waking up to the threat of climate change. There’s a push on for fuel efficiency at high levels and if it really catches on, this will affect the Alberta oil industry.
A U.S. speaker at an Edmonton conference last week told Albertans not to count on oil prices staying high. The prices that drive current oilsands development depend largely on U.S. demand, he pointed out. And that is likely to be affected by government policy, which is moving pretty strongly in favour of supporting energy alternatives.
The fact that such moves are coming from a U.S. administration with such close ties to the oil industry is really saying something. The global warming message must be getting through, despite the U.S. refusal to sign the Kyoto Accord on greenhouse gas emissions.
The message at the conference was not to count on U.S. demand for conventional energy supply.
If that’s true, the question Albertans in oil country have to ask themselves is if they can stand a slowdown in the pace of development. The answer is: ‘of course we can.’
There would be benefits. For starters, we have to figure out what to do about the sustainability of our lakes and rivers. This is not a small problem and when oilfield development is going at breakneck pace, it’s one of the things that just can’t be dealt with quickly enough.
For example, there’s a current controversy over Maria Lake, in northeastern Alberta. It’s in the middle of a possible oil project and permits have been issued for seismic testing right in, or through, the lake. The locals are alarmed and protesting because of what it might do to the fish. The science, apparently, is woefully lacking on that point.
On another note, it has come to light that rivers and lakes downstream of human populations are being polluted with residues of birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and all sorts of other crap. Rapid population growth makes it worse, faster. Again, the science needs years to catch up with the problems that are being aggravated by the red hot oil economy.
Lesser Slave Lake, we read in this week’s Leader, is not in great shape. A study of lake bottom sediment shows nutrient levels increasing in recent decades and years. High nutrients are bad news for fish, because they promote algae blooms, and algae sucks up all the oxygen fish need.
At some point even human water purification technology can’t keep up.
Figuring out solutions to these sorts of problems takes time, effort and perhaps some ingenuity. Certainly political will. Meanwhile, it would be good not to lose more ground.
But when multi-billion dollar oil development projects roar ahead, holding the line against environmental side-effects becomes pretty much impossible.
The oil and gas industry is not the only culprit, of course. But at current rates of development, it does raise the stakes and affects nearly everything else.
So, if the U.S. goes the whole hog and actually reduces its oil and gas appetite substantially? Yes, we could handle it. And we might be better off in the long run.