Alberta landowners' group tells farmers, ranchers to resist oil development

‌An ​Alberta landowner advocacy organization is urging farmers and ranchers to "actively resist" new oil and gas development on their land, an unprecedented move highlighting growing tensions between industry and rural residents in Canada's main energy-producing province.

Growing opposition to oil and gas development in a province that ‌has long supported the oil industry could challenge Prime Minister Mark Carney's efforts to boost oil output, build new pipelines and attract new markets for Canadian energy. The Alberta Surface Rights Federation, in a letter sent to Premier Danielle Smith on Thursday, said landowners must push back against energy development given what it calls government's failure to deal with issues like orphan and abandoned wells, delayed ‌reclamation of oil and gas sites, and unpaid municipal taxes owed by oil and gas companies.

Both the federal and Alberta governments are keen to expand domestic oil production in ‌the face of an escalating trade war with the US. But the move by Alberta landowners is evidence of pushback by some who believe economic growth is being prioritized over environmental rules and regulatory obligations. "Some of these politicians clearly don't have long-term thinking on their minds," said Bill Heidecker, president of the Alberta Surface Rights Federation, in an interview.

Neither the Alberta government nor the federal government immediately responded to requests for comment. Heidecker, who describes himself as ⁠a conservative ​rancher not opposed to responsible energy development, said ⁠there has been a "stunning erosion of support" for the oil and gas industry in rural Alberta in part due to the province's struggle to cope with thousands of so-called "orphan" wells that dot Alberta's rural landscape.

Carney, who grew up ⁠in Alberta, remains popular there and his efforts to appeal to the oil industry likely helped quell a nonbinding referendum on separatism last month. In September, however, a group of landowners launched legal action to argue ​that the province's energy regulator has chronically and knowingly underfunded a program meant to protect the public from the cost of cleaning up these abandoned oil and gas wells.

RISKS ⁠FROM ABANDONED OIL, GAS WELLS Studies have shown that abandoned oil and gas wells pose many risks, including potential methane leakage, soil and ground contamination, as well as the financial cost associated with cleanup.

Rural residents are also concerned about ⁠the ​impacts of newer forms of energy development including lithium mining and electricity generation for AI data centers and bitcoin mining, Heidecker said. In Alberta, landowners possess surface rights — giving them the right to farm the land or exploit surface resources like trees, gravel or water — but mineral rights are for the most part owned by the province, which lease them to energy companies.

Those companies ⁠then have the right to enter a landowner's land to extract the resources. Heidecker said his organization is not recommending that landowners physically bar energy companies from their property, but that ⁠they verbally withhold consent and refuse to sign ⁠any new surface leases.

Without consent, oil and gas companies then must seek a legal right-of-entry order to access the property. Heidecker said Alberta must address issues of energy infrastructure liability and environmental regulation before pushing ahead with its proposed 1 million bpd Pacific Link pipeline project, which would ‌increase Canada's west coast oil export ‌capabilities and potentially pave the way for oil and gas production expansion in the province.

(Reporting ​by Amanda Stephenson; Editing by Susan Fenton)