On Friday, May 3, 2024, Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) sent a letter to Government of Alberta MLAs on behalf of Alberta Beyond Fossil Fuels, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Northern Alberta, Council of Canadians, Environmental Defence Canada, Keepers of the Water, Stand.earth, and Treeline Ecological Research. The letter asks for their support in addressing the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER)’s irresponsible management of energy development and its impact on climate change mitigation in Alberta. For decades the regulator has ..read more

[caption id="attachment_85664" width="476"] An aerial view of an oil sands mining operation in northern Alberta, pictured in September 2023. Photo © P. Meintzer[/caption] April 15, 2024 After repeated failures to adequately regulate energy development in Alberta, a new coalition of eight environmental, Indigenous, scientific, and civil society organizations are demanding the removal of fossil fuel representatives from the Board of Directors at the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), among other demands. Mounting evidence shows that the AER operates with limited accountability and without sufficie ..read more

Executive Summary On Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) hosted a workshop with representatives from groups across Alberta to discuss our shared concerns about the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) and its apparent inability to adequately regulate the energy industry for the sake of the public’s best interest, Indigenous communities, and Alberta’s ecosystems. Mounting evidence shows that the AER operates without sufficient public transparency while having vast discretionary powers with limited accountability. The evidence indicates that rather than serving the best inte ..read more

By Kennedy Halvorson Click here for a pdf copy. In 1971, American singer-songwriter John Prine made his debut in folk and country music, with a self-titled album with the song Paradise. Widely covered and deservedly praised, the bluegrass tune was written in dedication to Prine’s father and recounts a painful history from his hometown in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, where strip mining for coal devastated the surrounding environment and community. The county is within the Appalachian Mountains, North America’s oldest mountain range. Compared to the striking, jagged peaks of the Rockies, these ..read more

On November 16, 2023, AWA received a letter from CST Canada Coal Limited in response to our statement of concern regarding their application to expand the mining depth of their No. 8 Mine near Grande Cache. A summary of their response is copied below: "CST Coal takes matters such as these very seriously, however, CST Coal cannot comment on this matter, as the investigation by the Alberta Energy Regulator into the alleged contraventions of its Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act Approval 00155804-01-00, is ongoing. CST Coal is fully cooperating with the Alberta Energy Regulator during ..read more

On October 5th, the legal counsel for Summit Coal Inc. sent a letter addressing all the individuals, organizations, and communities who had submitted a statement of concern regarding their proposed Mine 14 expansion, including AWA. The introduction of their response to AWA is copied below: "Summit has reviewed the SOCs and, for the reasons that follow, submits that the SOCs filed by AWA and CPAWS should be dismissed by the AER in their entirety, as neither of AWA or CPAWS have demonstrated that they may be directly and adversely affected by the Applications. More specifically, Summit submits ..read more

On October 10, 2023, CST Canada Coal Limited submitted an application (#1948872) requesting life-of-mine (LOM) pit modifications for their mine license (C2011-8K) to increase their allowable mining depth at the No. 8 Mine near Grande Cache. In the last year, three incidents involving the release of waste into the environment have occurred at CST Canada’s coal mining operations. The company attributes the latest incident on June 19, 2023, to heavy precipitation and regional flooding, weather events that will only become more common, severe, and unpredictable under future climate predictions. T ..read more

Alberta Wilderness Association wrote Premier Smith and Minister Jean on September 21, 2023 to express our concern regarding the ongoing coal mining projects in the Eastern Slopes, including  Summit Coal Ltd.’s Mine 14 and Northback Holdings Corporation’s Grassy Mountain's recent applications to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). AWA is concerned that Ministerial Order 002/2022, directing AER to implement a moratorium on new coal exploration and development in the Eastern Slopes is at risk of being violated. Albertans have reiterated time and time again that coal mining is an inappropria ..read more

Australian company Benga Mining Ltd. of the proposed (and infamous) Grassy Mountain Coal Mine is back, rebranded as the Northback Holdings Corporation. The company has applied to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) for a deep drilling permit and temporary water diversion license to explore the Grassy Mountain coal deposit. The Grassy Mountain Coal Mine had been jointly rejected by the federal and provincial governments because of significant adverse environmental impacts in 2021. AER said the project was “not in the public interest.” Alberta’s top courts dismissed all of Benga’s appeals. Final ..read more

In the subalpine and montane ecosystems of Grande Mountain, Summit Coal Inc. hopes to develop an underground, room-and-pillar style coal mine just over three kilometres northeast of Grande Cache, overlooking the Rocky Mountain hamlet. Details of the proposal include the extraction of 1.3 million tonnes of raw, metallurgical coal from the site annually, spanning around 250 acres on the surface and over 1,200 acres underground. The proposed project footprint of Mine 14 overlaps important mountain goat and bighorn sheep habitat, Alberta’s Grande Cache Grizzly Bear Management Area (BMA2), and the ..read more