I would like to respond to the suggestion by L. Leugner that citizens like myself are “ill informed” regarding the carbon tax and the fossil fuel industry.
The writer has stated that oil sands companies pay royalties “between 24 and 40 per cent.” In fact, oil sands operations pay royalties between one per cent and nine per cent until they have made back all “allowable expenses” involved in the particular project. Only once their investment has been entirely repaid will they be charged the very modest rates mentioned. The one to nine per cent rate does indeed apply to “conventional wells,” which is a term used not only to refer to conventional wells but to falsely describe the nearly 200,000 unconventional wells in Alberta which have been completed using high pressure, high volume hydraulic fracturing.
I will believe that the oil and gas industry is making their processes safe when they agree to use benign tracers in the frack fluid they inject deep into the earth, so that landowners can actually tell where the contaminants appearing in their water wells have originated.
Canada is described by the writer as 15th in terms of per capita greenhouse gas emissions. The Union of Concerned Scientists rates Canada as ninth among the 20 highest per capita emitters, at 19.4 tonnes. When looking at these ratings on a regional basis, Alberta and Saskatchewan are some of the highest in the world, at 68 and 67 tonnes respectively for every man, woman and child in these provinces.
There are, of course, industries other than fossil fuel industries which emit greenhouse gases; one reason I have stated that carbon taxes should be directed toward fossil fuel industries is because of the demonstrably high level of emissions they cause. We don’t drive cars or engage in other consumption more than people in other provinces; the only explanation for our high per capita emissions is the fossil fuel industry. My other reason is because the fossil fuel industries have known for decades the disastrous effects of human caused climate change, and not only have not shared this knowledge but have engaged in well-funded campaigns aimed at denying the facts.
The negative effects of multi-stage, high volume, high pressure fracking are not “potential problems”; they are an ongoing disaster for our air, land and water and our people’s health (http://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/).
Rather than excusing ourselves on the basis of what others do or do not do about climate change, we in Alberta could and should be leaders. We have vast untapped resources for solar, wind and geothermal energy. All that is needed is the political will to stop supporting destructive extractive activities, and make the transition we need to make now. It is up to all of us to help our governments develop that will to act.
Nielle Hawkwood
