Shell says court ruling ends challenge to oilsands growth
Joe Schneider
Bloomberg; Calgary Herald
Copyright © 2009 Calgary Herald
Alberta lawmakers have dismissed an appeal by an environmental group against two oilsands expansions planned by Shell Canada Ltd., saying provincial regulators acted reasonably in maintaining its approvals for the projects.
Alberta Court of Appeal Judge Bruce MacDonald on Friday upheld two rulings by the Energy Resources Conservation Board, the provincial energy regulator, denying a request to re-examine approvals of Shell's Jackpine Mine and expansion of the Muskeg River Mine oilsands project, the company said in a statement.
"We are pleased with the ruling and feel strongly that our compliance with CO2 regulations will fulfil the spirit and intent of our agreements with OSEC (the Oil Sands Environmental Coalition) to reduce CO2 from oilsands," said John Abbot, Shell executive vice-president of heavy oil, in a statement.
The company has called for "robust" regulations around greenhouse gases rather than voluntary targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The Oil Sands Environmental Coalition, which includes the environmental policy researcher Pembina Institute, asked the board for new hearings in April, claiming Shell failed to abide by a voluntary pollution-reduction agreement that it signed with the environmental group. The board denied the request and the group appealed.
MacDonald said in his ruling the energy board's decisions were based on a reasonable exercise of its discretion and the threshold for an appeal wasn't met, according to Shell.
The judge didn't put his decision in writing, Philip Vircoe, a Shell spokesman, said Friday in a phone interview.
"This is the end of the road for our legal options," said Dan Woynillowicz, a policy analyst at the Pembina Institute.
The environmental group will stop negotiating directly with oil companies and instead bring its concerns to the regulatory board from now on, Woynillowicz said.
"It's more adversarial and more costly," he said, adding the energy board had encouraged groups to negotiate directly with the companies to reduce the length of hearings and cut costs.
Shell had promised to bring pollution from oilsands mines in line with alternatives available in North America, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 816,000 tonnes a year --the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the roads, the environmental group said.
The Muskeg River oilsands mine and the Jackpine Mine are about 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.