{"id":57203,"date":"2021-03-20T06:58:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T11:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57203"},"modified":"2021-03-20T06:58:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T11:58:13","slug":"governments-are-making-taxpayers-subsidize-corporate-cleanup-of-oil-and-gas-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57203","title":{"rendered":"Governments Are Making Taxpayers Subsidize Corporate Cleanup of Oil and Gas Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2021\/03\/19\/Governments-Make-Taxpayers-Subsidize-Corporate-Cleanup-Oil-Wells\/\">Governments Are Making Taxpayers Subsidize Corporate Cleanup of Oil and Gas Wells<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>Companies are responsible for dormant wells, but the public is helping foot the bill.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2019\/10\/10\/OilGasWorkerPipes.jpg\" alt=\"OilGasWorkerPipes.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"642\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">Oil and gas companies are required to clean up their old wells. But governments have decided taxpayers should subsidize them as part of the pandemic response.\u00a0<span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo by Larry McDougal, the Canadian Press.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p>The B.C. and Canadian governments have promoted a $100-million fund to clean up dormant oil and gas wells in the province as a \u201cwin-win\u201d for the environment and the economy.<\/p>\n<p>But the biggest winners may be the major oil and gas companies that own the sites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo find out the major recipients of this are companies that are perfectly able to clean up their own mess is not surprising, but disappointing,\u201d said Peter McCartney, climate campaigner with the Wilderness Committee environmental group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s another subsidy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>McCartney received information on the grant recipients from B.C.\u2019s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation in response to a freedom of information request that he shared with The Tyee. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Documents\/2021\/03\/18\/FOI-Dormant-Wells.pdf\">document<\/a> provides details on the first $50 million to be distributed in the province.<\/p>\n<p>A quarter of that money, $12.4 million, is dedicated to cleaning up sites where Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is the permit holder. The corporation, based in Calgary, is worth $45 billion.<\/p>\n<p>The second biggest share, $7.9 million, is for Petronas Energy Canada Ltd. sites. The Canadian subsidiary\u2019s parent company is owned by the Malaysian government.<\/p>\n<p>Media contacts for CNRL and Petronas didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Other prominent companies among the 41 permit holders listed include Enerplus Corp., Ovintiv Canada ULC, ExxonMobil Canada Energy, Husky Oil Operations Ltd., Imperial Oil Resources Ltd., Cenovus Energy Inc., Painted Pony Energy Ltd., Tourmaline Oil Corp. and Whitecap Resources Inc.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<p>the tyee, oil and gas industry, andrew macleod, british columbia,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Governments Are Making Taxpayers Subsidize Corporate Cleanup of Oil and Gas Wells Companies are responsible for dormant wells, but the public is helping foot the bill. Oil and gas companies are required to clean up their old wells. But governments have decided taxpayers should subsidize them as part of the pandemic response.\u00a0Photo by Larry McDougal, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[11645,94,1729,5499],"class_list":["post-57203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-andrew-macleod","tag-british-columbia","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57204,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57203\/revisions\/57204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}