The CBC article states, “On June 1, the United Conservative government of Premier Jason Kenney rescinded the coal policy. The full implications of this are not yet clear, but there is growing tension — both nervous and excited energy — about what it will bring.
“What is known is that the change happened suddenly, with virtually no public consultation but plenty of behind-the-scenes lobbying. And it didn’t happen in isolation. It came alongside a rapid-fire series of legislative changes that removed hurdles or industrial development, more broadly, during a particularly desperate economic moment.”
The word “mine” evokes images of soot-smeared workers in underground tunnels, but this is actually a mountain in the process of being deconstructed. A geologic wound. Its slopes are blackened and tiered, abuzz with enormous yellow trucks that look tiny from this distance, kicking up grey plumes of dust as they haul the pulverized mountain away, load by load.
The CBC wrote an article about the Grassy Mountain Coal Project today. Likewise, so did I. If you have an interest in Alberta environmental issues, you can click here to read the CBC article and click here to read mine.
An article in the Medicine Hat News describes the benefits they’ll see by having Highway 3 upgraded. The upgrade will carry through to Lethbridge. It’s said these repairs are crucial to the “Hat” and there is some discussion about twinning the highway. The Globe and Mail says, “Alberta is adding $1 billion to its budget to repair more roads, schools, bridges and potholes as a way to create jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.” No doubt, a lot of people will be thrilled.
Some upgrades being discussed are:
• Security building;
• Highway 3 intersection;
• Access road from Highway3 to the mine infrastructure area (approximately seven kilometres);
• Access road system from the mine infrastructure area to the pit operations (currently in the preliminary planning phase);
• Service road system from the mine infrastructure area to the CHPP infrastructure and train loadout area
• Water management structures including raw water wells for groundwater, CHPP reservoir, storage tanks, distribution pipe network;and
• Site-wide drainage civil works.
Understandably this will be a great advantage for Lethbridge and Medicine Hat businesses and residents. It will also be a huge benefit to Benga Mining Limited, from Australia, operating as Riversdale Resources. The Grassy Mountain Coal Project is being watched for its success very closely by a number of companies who will follow the company into the area to establish other mines.
It is unfortunate that such a pristine area of Alberta will destroy 2,800ha in the name of progress. Even more unfortunate if the mine is successful! They’re seeking approval for six extensive mountain top removal coal mines. Totalled, these could leave a path of destruction of 30-50 kilometres.
An article in the Prairie Post quotes Alberta Premier Jason Kenney as saying:
“We are also working on a potential additional metallurgical coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass. There are some big Australian multinational companies that have struck a partnership with the Piikani First Nation and (it’s) quite advanced,” added Kenney. “We have been clearing the way of regulatory hurdles. We may see multi-billion dollar capital investment in new coal miners in the Pas and that would certainly accelerate continue twinning especially on the west side of Highway 3. We want to move those potential coal mines ahead as quick as we can. As I say, this 46-km stretch will be done in 2023. If we get a commitment on one of those big coal mines before that, I think we may be able to expand the twinning in the medium term rather than the long term.”
This isn’t a thermal coal project for generating electricity. They’ll be mining metallurgical coal used in the construction of steel.
People today are still haunted by the Hillcrest mine disaster that happened in the Pass. It was the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history which resulted in 189 of 228 workers killed. It happened on Friday June 19, 1914.
Tech Coal in British Columbia is having a huge problem with selenium contamination. It’s getting into the waterways and being detected as far away as Montana. It can cause growth impairment in fish, gill damage and even death. Some of the fish found in Elk River Elk River had deformities. The same environmental issues will have to be addressed at Grassy Mountain too. This mine will start on a previous site that was mined many years ago. (Pictured below)
While many people will be happy to have the work, there are health concerns for workers as well. A Wikipedia about it says, “published studies also show a high potential for human health impacts. These may result from contact with streams or exposure to airborne toxins and dust. Adult hospitalization for chronic pulmonary disorders and hypertension are elevated as a result of county-level coal production. Rates of mortality, lung cancer, as well as chronic heart, lung and kidney disease are also increased. A 2011 study found that counties in and near mountaintop mining areas had higher rates of birth defects for five out of six types of birth defects, including circulatory/respiratory, musculoskeletal, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, and urogenital defects.
These defect rates were more pronounced in the most recent period studied, suggesting the health effects of mountaintop mining-related air and water contamination may be cumulative. Another 2011 study found “the odds of reporting cancer were twice as high in the mountaintop mining environment compared to the non-mining environment in ways not explained by age, sex, smoking, occupational exposure, or family cancer history. “
The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada has a report, ‘Environmental hazard assessment of Benga Mining’s proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project’ written by A. Dennis Lemly. He states, “A scientific analysis of environmental hazards of the project reveals numerous flaws in both the projected environmental performance of the mine and its regulatory control. From both environmental and economic perspectives, the proposed mine will do far more damage than can be reasonably justified on any level.
“The process of open-pit mining requires surface disposal of residuals, that is, the waste rock removed to gain access to the desired coal seam. This creates a stockpile of material which has the potential to produce large volumes of contaminated wastewater due to precipitation-induced leaching of toxic heavy metals, trace elements and other materials from the mineral matrix of the rock.”
An article at ‘Alberta Views’ explains the usual process of remediation. It says, “As the companies exhaust parts of the mine they are required to reclaim the site. This usually involves bulldozing the spoil heaps to slopes of less than 27 per cent and then spraying fertilizer and seed on top to get vegetation established. Even then, toxic chemicals can leach into nearby streams for decades.”
Before the companies are permitted to mine, they must have a plan in place for remediation. With the millions of dollars Alberta will spend on remediation of oil wells, we see that companies don’t always live up to their promises. Although they have good intentions, some of the waste piles just have a little dirt piled over the top of them.
Alberta doesn’t have to worry about the emissions produced by making steel with the coal. Most of it will be going to Australia. They will use half of it to make steel and sell the other half. Australia earns a lot of money selling metallurgical coal. It’s playing a central role in fuelling a steel boom in China. The world needs steel, so emissions are largely ignored according to Greenpeace. Overall we’ll be increasing emissions on a global level and contribute more to global warming, regardless of whether we get any honorary mention for it.
Is there a climate crisis?
One wouldn’t think so by taking a look at Alberta. In Ottawa, Trudeau seems to be leaning towards a greener future for Canada but there isn’t any way to score his card so far. There isn’t anything on it.
Joe Biden, who’s in the lead for the presidency, is teaming up with representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. Last year, Mr. Biden proposed a $1.7 trillion plan aimed at achieving 100 percent clean energy and eliminating the country’s net carbon emissions by 2050. His teammate, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, may help him realize this goal.
If Mr. Biden wins, Canada may be forced into plan two.
What’s plan two?
Nothing really. We aren’t a force for climate change, we’re just riding on the shirttails of those who are, and we’ll be dragged into a green new deal whether we’re ready or not.
This story is part of a series that proposes solutions to the many issues exposed during the coronavirus pandemic and what government and citizens can do to make Canada a better place.
Demand for fossil fuels collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdown measures were introduced. In the second quarter of 2020, experts predict that global oil demand will be down 20 per cent from this time last year. Although demand is likely to recover somewhat in the next two years, some major oil company executives believe that it may never return to pre-2020 levels.
At the same time, the world remains “on fire” due to climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels. The year began with fires ravaging Australia, and in June, temperatures in the Arctic hit a record-breaking 38C.
The world is now at a critical juncture — a moment of uncertainty where decisions can cause dramatic shifts in the direction a society takes. The choices we make now will define Canada’s — and humanity’s — future.
As governments look for ways to help the Canadian economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, they must be guided by one incontestable principle: We cannot afford to invest in and expand the fossil fuel industry any further.
Why we need structural change
Daily global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 17 per cent in early April, when lockdowns were at their peak, compared to 2019. In the U.K., the decline hit 31 per cent, while in Canada it reached 20 per cent.
Emissions in 2020 are expected to be down by four per cent to (at most) seven per cent from 2019. But this falls short of the emissions cuts needed to achieve the Paris Agreement targets — 7.6 per cent a year, every year.
The lockdown has demonstrated that behavioural change alone is insufficient to decarbonize the economy; we also need structural change that gets at the root of emissions. This means addressing the contribution of the oil sector, particularly the oil sands.
While emissions from other sectors in Canada have levelled off or are declining, oil sands emissions increased by 456 per cent between 1990 and 2018. Emissions from conventional oil production have also increased, but only by 24 per cent.
A flare stack at the Imperial Oil refinery in Edmonton lights the sky in December 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
For a brief period in early April and again later that month, a barrel of Alberta oil was selling for less than a bottle of maple syrup. Although the price has since recovered somewhat, expectations for capital expenditures have changed dramatically.
While the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has indefinitely deferred its long-term production forecast, Alberta has cut production by about 25 per cent, or one million barrels per day. According to Alberta, mega pipelines are now “fairly empty,” and Enbridge plans to use part of its aging Line 3 for oil storage. BP has written off its oil sands investments entirely.
Any government response to this lobbying isn’t a question of weighing “jobs versus the environment”: the industry has been shedding jobs for years, while extracting more oil. From 2014 to 2019, in the midst of surging production, Canada’s oil and gas sector cut 53,000 jobs — about a quarter of the sector’s 225,000 jobs. Advancements in automation and other changes in the industry mean that those jobs are not coming back, even if the troubled Keystone XL pipeline is somehow built.
While oil workers have faced unemployment and anxiety about their futures, executives and shareholders have continued to reap huge benefits. The five largest oil sands producers doled out $12.6 billion in dividends to shareholders (the majority of which are not Canadian) from late 2014 to 2017.
In May, the Canadian oil and gas industry employed roughly 163,000 people, which was less than one per cent of all workers in the country. But those jobs are highly geographically concentrated. As oil assets increasingly become stranded assets, Canada’s oil workers and oil-dependent communities will likewise become stranded.
The question of when has been answered for us. If, as a country, we can agree that bailouts are not justifiable on economic or environmental grounds, then the oil price crash dictates that the transition starts now. Recent polling indicates that the vast majority of Canadians want the federal government to invest in a “green recovery.”
In terms of how the transition occurs, redirecting the billions of dollars in subsidies that the federal government currently provides the fossil fuel industry to renewable energy and energy efficiency projects is a good place to start. This could create far more jobs while also making a contribution to our emissions reductions targets.
It is also clear that we should invest more in care work — so that we have more and better-paid nurses, and universal child care. Jobs in this sector are low-carbon and, as the pandemic has demonstrated so vividly, essential to the functioning of our society.
We can also think outside the box. The pandemic response has substantially increased awareness and acceptance of previously overlooked policy options such as universal basic income, job guarantees, and a shorter work week.
Reimagining our relationship to work and focusing on outcomes that address inequality and improve well-being can help us to reduce our emissions as well as our reliance on the industries that can no longer offer the employment opportunities that we need.
BERLIN — German lawmakers have finalized the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticize as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Bills approved by both houses of parliament Friday envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.
Countering Canberra’s fossil-backed call for a gas-powered pandemic recovery plan, the Australian lobby group Beyond Zero Emissions has mapped a solar- and wind-powered path to the swift creation of one million green jobs across the energy, manufacturing, and building sectors.
Released in the wake of recent reports that 800,000 Australians lost their jobs to pandemic-related restrictions in April and May, the plan would see “as many as 150,000 jobs created in building out solar and wind capacity as well as transmission infrastructure; 250,000 opportunities in modernizing and expanding the manufacturing sector; and 300,000 to create three million ‘Zero Energy Bill’ buildings,” writes Bloomberg Green. Electrifying transportation, land restoration projects, and concerted efforts to improve recycling would bring yet more Australians back into the work force.
