EDMONTON - Alberta is officially turning out the lights on Energy Efficiency Alberta, an agency created by the former NDP government to promote green initiatives and home rebates. Grant Hunter, associate minister in charge of red tape, says what remains of the agency's mandate can be done by other panels or by other departments. Energy Efficiency Alberta was launched in 2017 to promote renewable energy while funding programs and incentives on everything from solar panels to [Read more]

EDMONTON - A dozen First Nations and conservation groups are asking Ottawa to step in and force the Alberta government to reinstate environmental monitoring in the province's oilpatch. The groups made the request in a letter sent to federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. They say Ottawa should step in because the suspensions threaten plans to restore damage done to the ecosystem in Wood Buffalo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Environmental monitoring is a big part [Read more]

EDMONTON - Three northern Alberta First Nations want to appeal the province's decision to suspend environmental monitoring in the oilpatch. The Mikisew Cree First Nation, the Fort McKay First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation have made the request to the regulator's internal appeals body. The Alberta Energy Regulator made the decision earlier this spring in what it said was an attempt to keep workers and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Melody Lepine of the [Read more]

VICTORIA - Criminal and civil contempt of court charges have been dropped against those who were arrested in February for violating an injunction while fighting the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern B.C. The arrests of 22 members of the Wet'suwet'en Nation and their supporters sparked protests across the country, shutting down rail and roads and putting a dent in the Canadian economy. The BC Prosecution Service says in a statement issued Friday that criminal contempt [Read more]

KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Trans Mountain says it has reached another "key milestone" in the project to triple capacity of a pipeline moving oil from the Edmonton area to port in Burnaby, B.C. A statement says construction on a seven-kilometre section of the line has begun in Kamloops. It says a crew of up to 50 is preparing the area, but the workforce will grow to about 600 during peak construction later this summer or early fall. The federal Crown corporation says completion of the Kamloops [Read more]

OTTAWA - Representatives from Canada's oilpatch say they don't know of a single energy company that has yet benefited from any of Ottawa's COVID-19-inspired loan programs. Several company owners and industry advocates are painting a grim picture of the state of the country's energy sector today at a virtual hearing of the House of Commons finance committee. Peter Kiss, the president of Morgan Construction and Environmental Ltd., says he has laid off 80 per cent of his staff, watched his [Read more]

EDMONTON - Alberta is introducing legislation to allow the government to set maximum time limits on approvals for energy projects. Energy Minister Sonya Savage says that a review of the system has shown that at times it takes too long for Alberta's energy regulator to make decisions on whether to allow an oil and gas project to proceed. The review found that while some projects were approved in as little as five days or less, others took months or years. Savage says they are giving the [Read more]

EDMONTON - Alberta politicians are going back to the legislature this week with a plan to sit until late July and pass 10 bills, while physical distancing and dealing with COVID-19. Government house leader Jason Nixon said Premier Jason Kenney and his United Conservative cabinet ministers are to deliver an update on the pandemic in the house Wednesday and take Opposition questions on the government's handling of the crisis. Later this week, the government is to introduce bills that would [Read more]