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re: Alberta politics
@mpjgregoire @ink_slinger I mean mostly I'm gleaming this from paying attention to the news in Alberta over the history of my lifetime, but I can try to sum some semblance of this up and dredge up some recent-ish detailed materials.
There's a pittance put into funding for environmental concerns, but it sure hasn't seemed to be sufficient for actual reclamation of these sites as far as I know. And the relative pittance that tar sands exploitation is being taxed does not seem to me to be commensurate to the huge emissions it generates; worse, that money is going in part to funding R&D grants to the very same companies generating the emissions (even while other R&D grants in the province are being cut, which resulted in a co-worker of mine being laid off as it happens).
Here's an IMF paper talking globally about oil subsidies, which includes a $43,000,000,000 USD subsidy in Canada in 2015 (presumably mostly centered in Alberta). https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Global-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Remain-Large-An-Update-Based-on-Country-Level-Estimates-46509
https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/public-cash-oil-gas-en.pdf talks in some depth about the lack of inherent profitability of the oil & gas sector without special government treatment.
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2019/02/21/new-report-shows-albertas-subsidies-fossil-fuel-industry-rapidly-increasing/ cites the tar sands as a whopping ~25% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. The full paper there also breaks down some more specifics of various programs that funnel money into the industry, including various things like tax cuts on rail transportation.
And unlike most industries as far as I know, the oil industry in Alberta is very frequently and heavily granted royalty holidays.
There's a pittance put into funding for environmental concerns, but it sure hasn't seemed to be sufficient for actual reclamation of these sites as far as I know. And the relative pittance that tar sands exploitation is being taxed does not seem to me to be commensurate to the huge emissions it generates; worse, that money is going in part to funding R&D grants to the very same companies generating the emissions (even while other R&D grants in the province are being cut, which resulted in a co-worker of mine being laid off as it happens).
Here's an IMF paper talking globally about oil subsidies, which includes a $43,000,000,000 USD subsidy in Canada in 2015 (presumably mostly centered in Alberta). https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Global-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Remain-Large-An-Update-Based-on-Country-Level-Estimates-46509
https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/public-cash-oil-gas-en.pdf talks in some depth about the lack of inherent profitability of the oil & gas sector without special government treatment.
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2019/02/21/new-report-shows-albertas-subsidies-fossil-fuel-industry-rapidly-increasing/ cites the tar sands as a whopping ~25% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. The full paper there also breaks down some more specifics of various programs that funnel money into the industry, including various things like tax cuts on rail transportation.
And unlike most industries as far as I know, the oil industry in Alberta is very frequently and heavily granted royalty holidays.
re: Alberta politics
@keithzg @mpjgregoire@mamot.fr Quite often, the oil companies operating here are essentially shell companies that declare bankruptcy as soon as their operations are done, as well, and by the time the receivers have taken their money there's nothing left for clean up. And it's hard to sue a company that no longer exists.