Your help is needed. 🙏 🤝

1) It seems clear that the "tool" the Centurion Project (the current name of the separatist movement) is using to "soldier" up is simply stolen data. You and your family's data from Alberta to Gaza is being shared with the United States for nefarious means.
2) To justify oil and gas demand, data centers that demand obscene amounts of freshwater are being proposed everywhere while the cheapest and cleanest barrels are being destroyed for dirty and distant American made fossil fuel products.
3) It seems our data will be used to target and erase us at will, as we're witnessing in real-time across the Middle East (Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon). No long-standing, untold story to deny a genocide in Lebanon.
4) The world is two weeks away from feeling the impacts of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz beginning on February 28, 2026. The best barrels and LNG have been taken off line. While the purchasers of our AI data center plans have zero income (think United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia).
5) Diesel and jet fuel supply are set to fall across Europe while the US is actively destroying cheap, clean Russian, Indian, and now Middle Eastern oil and gas supply since 2022. And, the US is depleting its own reserves and set to rely on Alberta and Venezuela to double the load in short order.

6) Again, for AI data centers to surveil you and further depletion of your food and water supply.
7) There is no end in sight as Trump and the thugs who surround him will not admit defeat, unless you join Mikayla and me in asking them to retreat.

Alberta does not need to look far for examples of where we are headed if we don't stop the doubling production lie; the City of Corpus Christi is headed for zero freshwater soon if the big six get their way.

The bigger issues we all face now is feeding ourselves as #PresidentDJT dismantles the world food & trade system.

Take Action:

1. Call for the Edmonton Chief of Police to be removed from his role with this Change.org petition:

Demand Warren Dreichel’s Removal from The Edmonton Police Service

While our city continues to mourn the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, Police Chief Warren Driechel travelled to Israel to meet with the police force notorious for its human rights violations, with the Police Commission’s blessing. While the trip has been framed as an “educational” expedition, for Edmontonians this trip was a betrayal. Mayor, Andrew Knack rightly noted that this trip has damaged the social fabric of our city. Yet, in the face of this outcry, Chief Driechel has remained defiant, stating he “stands by his decision.”

Sign Here!

We, the signatories, demand:

• The immediate resignation of Police Chief Warren Driechel, on the grounds that his actions have undermined public trust and jeopardized community cohesion.

• An independent, transparent, and comprehensive investigation into the purpose, funding, itinerary, meetings, and outcomes of Police Chief Driechel’s travel to Occupied Palestine including full disclosure of any official or unofficial engagements undertaken during the visit.

• The immediate suspension and subsequent termination of any current or future institutional partnerships, training programs, exchanges, or collaborations between the Edmonton Police Service and zionist policing or security agencies, in accordance with municipal, commitments to human rights, international law, and ethical governance.

We know that human rights should never be taken for granted. We know that what Warren Dreichel did was wrong, and he must face the consequences of his actions.

2. Call for a Federal Investigation into Foreign Interference within the Separatist Movement

2. e-7340—Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled

Whereas:

• The Alberta Prosperity Project, driving the current independence petition, has held three documented meetings with senior Trump administration officials and solicited a $500 billion US credit facility to fund a potential independent Alberta;

• The Trump administration’s documented pattern of resource-driven coercion — in Venezuela, Greenland, and Panama — is now credibly directed at Alberta, which holds the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves;

• Co-founder Dennis Modry, participant in the Washington meetings, was found by a BC Supreme Court judge to have misappropriated $1.3 million from elderly relatives;

• Canada’s Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner has confirmed foreign interference in Canadian political processes is already occurring and that the Washington meetings may fall within his mandate; and

• The Alberta government legislated around a court ruling declaring the original petition unconstitutional — conduct the presiding judge described as “disrespectful to the administration of justice.”

We, the undersigned, People of Canada, call upon the House of Commons in Parliament assembled to invoke its authority under Section 53 of the Supreme Court Act to refer the constitutionality of Alberta’s Justice Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 to the Supreme Court of Canada, and to direct the Foreign Influence Transparency Commissioner to immediately investigate the meetings between the Alberta Prosperity Project and the Trump administration.

Sign this Petition

If you wish to sign this petition, please provide the required information in the fields below. Your personal information will not be made public.

Sign Petition e-7340!

#NWTpoli #bcpoli #abpoli #skpoli #mbpoli #Maritimes, #AtlanticCanada, #EastCoast #cdnpoli #canada #onpoli #ontario #toronto #alberta #abpoli #trudeaumustgo #politics #trudeau #bcpoli #ottawa #freedomconvoy #ableg #justintrudeau #calgary #conservative #canadianpolitics #skpoli #cpc #ndp #cdnpolitics #elxn #canadian #liberals #vancouver #canadavotes #covid #quebec #andrewscheer

I had the opportunity to step outside of my comfort zone with Claire Kraatz of For Our Kids Alberta and Dr. Joe Vipond of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) on Monday night to hear from the CPP Investments | Investissements RPC board (CPPIB).

I was expecting the room to be hyping a west coast pipeline, fossil fuel expansion, and further military investment. I was pleasantly surprised with the questions from my fellow Calgarians.

Joe led the questions by asking why the CPPIB removed it's net zero commitments. The response was "decarbonization" is good enough. I followed up by reminding Michel Leduc that the oil and gas industry has yet to commit ANY private dollars towards carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. They haven't accepted the toll rates which are necessary to address the 4x cost increase to the Trans Mountain expansion project. I reminded him that all of the Pathways Alliance members have scrubbed net zero commitments off their websites as they know CCS does not achieve this. Lastly, I reminded him why: because CCS will only reduce 15-20% of emissions and what is required instead is to stop developing new fossil fuels.

My question to him was: what is the CPPIB waiting for before they will stop investing in fossil fuels as the industry is operating in bad faith? I reminded him that I am a professional and member of The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) and that I am speaking from a place of public safety and environmental integrity.

Leduc explained that public investment is an important way to influence good practice in the fossil fuel industry. I beg to differ, I worked within for 22 years before I realized there is zero leadership within the fossil fuel industry. Only misleading. I dare them to prove me wrong.

Beyond the questions about further commitment from CPPIB to invest in renewables, a Calgary resident asked about their investment in the Ga7a genocide.

"According to research from Just Peace Advocates, the CPP invested $27 billion in companies complicit in Isra3l’s genocide in Ga7a and apartheid in the W3st Bank." (thanks for this figure from Just Peace Advocates in your article). Leduc acknowledged the concern and suggested he would look further into it.

The CPPIB was in Edmonton yesterday, too. Glad to know that the separatists weren't present there either and that Edmonton was also concerned about CPPIB's continued investment in fossil fuels and war.

Claire closed questioning by asking how the CPPIB can justify investment in Tiene Energy and other oil and gas producers who are actively lobbying against Federal emissions reduction regulations. Leduc’s final comments suggest he appreciates things are getting worse and not better, and that it is by the oil and gas industry’s design.

The message is clear, from the province who knows about the industry most, the CPPIB has a responsibility to divest from their position in war and fossil fuels. To maintain this position, when there is zero evidence of good faith, is misleading Canadians into the future. Change is needed, leaders are needed. What the CPPIB does next matters, they have been told from the horse's mouth.

#CPPIB #cdnpoli #abpoli #fossilfuel #divestment

First, I wholeheartedly agree that we shouldn’t have coal mining on the eastern slopes. That’s a no brainer. It makes no sense whatsoever to allow coal mining in our headwaters. That water is the lifeblood of everyone and everything that exists downstream. No clean water, no life.

But I also think that we — as environmentalists in Alberta — need to think about the issue of resource extraction more critically, because there’s a glaring inconsistency between the way that people react to the threat of coal mining in the Rockies, compared to other industrial impacts.

When coal mining threatens to destroy mountain hiking trails for white people, there’s outrage. But when Suncor proposes to build a 14-kilometre-long wall through one of Alberta’s largest wetlands for increased oil sands production, predominantly harming Indigenous Communities, there’s hardly a peep from most Albertans. At the same time, where is the public anger at Canadian mining companies that are digging up already over-exploited communities and ecosystems in the global south? Or is it only Alberta’s landscape that deserves protection?

If we can agree that our headwaters are really that important, then why are we alright with 75 percent of our water in southern Alberta going to a handful of industrial irrigators to produce cash crops for profit (during a drought), rather than feeding Albertans right here in our own province? If we don’t want coal in our headwaters, why do we tolerate tailings ponds leaking into the watershed further downstream? We want to protect the water at the source, but don’t seem to give a shit what happens to it afterwards. What kind of pollution are we willing to tolerate, and who is forced to bear the consequences of that pollution?

Sure, what the government of Alberta did by ending the moratorium on coal is objectively a bad thing for the environment. And maybe different political leadership would be marginally better. But we live in a world of global capitalism, which means that even if we ban extractive industries in certain parts of Alberta, it will push extraction to other jurisdictions, like the global south.

That’s why piecemeal regulations and reforms are always going to be insufficient. Regulations aren’t useless, but all they do is put limits on capital accumulation. If regulations are too stringent, then that can lead to “capital flight” where investments or businesses relocate. Advocating for stronger regulations in an isolated way without an international perspective means that our advocacy may push extraction to where labour and resources are cheaper — where it’s more profitable. It also risks causing economic hardship because of job losses when businesses cease operations in a particular area. And as we are currently witnessing — reforms can easily be undone. Protections under capitalism are never permanent.

They’re not permanent because capitalism doesn’t tolerate limits on growth — at least not for very long. Either the money moves elsewhere to where regulations are less stringent, or corporate lobbying weakens existing regulations, or the economy shrinks, which is called a recession, and millions of people are thrown out of work. This is why we can’t resolve environmental issues under capitalism. When the economy grows, the environment suffers. When the economy shrinks, people suffer.

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Some people are quick to blame these issues on ineffective or negligent regulators, like the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). A regulator is like a sieve, and the stronger the regulations, the less projects go through. But in a world where our main goal is profit, then at some point the regulator is going to have to approve projects that put people and the environment in harms way. Regulations can’t get in the way of GDP going up. That’s how the system works.

One type of reform that environmental groups and activists often ask for is protected areas — like national parks (or similar). Protected areas are a reasonable tool in the near-term, because we don’t have many other tools available to set nature off limits to extraction, but they aren’t a solution. Protected areas reinforce this arbitrary (and settler-colonial) idea of “untouched” or “pristine” nature which is off-limits for meeting human needs (not even in a sustainable way). Kind of like how European colonizers removed Indigenous People from large tracts of land in the creation of national parks like Banff or Wood Buffalo. “Wilderness” is manufactured.

Unfortunately, we need protected areas under capitalism because it’s one of the few tools that limits destruction, but it also creates “sacrifice zones” everywhere else, where capital is allowed to extract and extract and extract. If we take the protected areas approach to its logical conclusion, we end up with 1) human no-use zones, and 2) sacrifice zones that are destined only for continued extraction. But how do those protected areas survive as little disconnected islands amongst an ocean of harm?

I’m not saying that we should give up the fight to protect Alberta’s ecosystems, or that reforms don’t matter, but rather, that we need to view resource extraction as part of the global system of capitalism and change our tactics accordingly. This means that we need to bring an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and international perspective to the way that we fight against industrial development in Alberta.

What is it that we are fighting for? What is the end goal of environmental work? What is the world we are seeking to build?

In my view, we should be seeking to reestablish a sustainable relationship between human society and the non-human (or “more than human”) natural world that we depend on.

Human society will always use nature in some way to meet our needs, like we always have. But our relationship with nature can be more-or-less sustainable depending on the economic system at a given time. Right now, all our economic activities are geared towards turning nature into money for a privileged few — rather than meeting our needs — and we are running out of nature. Sustainability is impossible under capitalism, because capitalism requires never-ending growth.

Better regulations, moratoriums, and protected areas are decent band-aids for an economic system that keeps producing new wounds, but at some point, we have to force those in power to drop the knife. Real sustainability is only possible if we can respect that the earth has ecological limits or “planetary boundaries” and that all human activities need to be coordinated in a way that equitably meets our needs without stepping beyond those boundaries.

If you want to save Alberta’s Eastern Slopes for real, then you need to be anti-capitalist.

To: julie.dabrusin@parl.gc.ca
Cc: eleanor.olszewski@parl.gc.ca, audienceandengagement-audienceetmobilisation@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca,
nenshi@albertandp.ca

October 28, 2025

From: Calgary Citizens on Climate Change

Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, Cc Liberal MP Erik St. Pierre, Cc Eleanor Olszewski, Minister for Emergency Management and Community Resilience, Cc Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Cc Naheed Nenshi, Leader of the Opposition in Alberta

Dear Honorable Julie Dabrusin,

Subject: Aligning Canada’s Economy with the Laws of Nature International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with respect to Climate Change

It is incumbent upon Canadians, through their governments—federal, provincial, territorial and municipal—to transition, as soon as possible, from hydrocarbon energy, and a wasteful consumptive ethos to a circular economy founded upon the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems and water resources. By aligning the Canadian economy with the laws of nature, Canada would be abiding by the protocols issued on July 23rd, 2025, by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with respect to Climate Change.

With the objective to mitigate climate breakdown, the ICJ decreed that nation states have an obligation to uphold the laws of nature through conservation and preservation of the planet’s functioning ecological systems. In order to abide by this ruling, the ICJ identified the following realignment requirements:

Duty to Prevent Significant Harm:

States must take all necessary measures to prevent or minimize environmental harm from climate change. This duty is based on customary international law and the principle of due diligence.

High Ambition in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs):

States must establish NDCs that reflect their highest possible ambition. As the planet has regrettably exceeded the 1.5℃ temperature increase target, collective actions must now aim for a limit of 1.6℃ of global warming over pre-industrial levels.

Cooperation and Information Sharing:

States are obligated to cooperate in good faith, including through information sharing and transparency, to address climate change.

Developed countries’ Responsibility to Support Developing Countries:

As the economies of developed nation states’ have disproportionately benefited from its wasteful and destructive historical emissions at the expense of undeveloped nations and the global commons, developed countries have a responsibility to provide financial and technological support to developing countries to assist in the latter’s mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Due Diligence:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) emphasized that the due diligence standard requires a high degree of vigilance and prevention, and states must use all means at their disposal to minimize harm.

Human rights considerations:

The ICJ ruling highlights the link between climate change and human rights, emphasizing that the enjoyment of human rights depends on environmental protection.

Potential Consequences for Non-compliance:

States that breach their obligations may incur legal responsibility and be required to cease wrongful conduct, offer guarantees of non-repetition, and make full reparation for damages.

In order for Canada to meet these obligations, the following activities must cease:

1. New fossil fuel development (wells, pipelines, facilities, or accessways)

2. New mineral resource mines or mine extensions (e.g. Eastern Slopes and Oil Sands mining)

3. New refineries or interprovincial pipelines for oil or LNG

4. Carbon capture and storage for fossil fuel development, natural gas hydrogen development, or data centers powered by fossil fuels.

5. Fossil fuel subsidies of any form.

6. Flaring exemptions (venting processes eliminated).

7. Freshwater use in industrial development operations, including data centers.

To implement the foregoing pivotal objectives, we recommend that the Canadian Government adopt and develop the following policies:

1. A high-grading audit of industrial site cleanup and restoration plans within each province and territory and the collection of deposits on new wells and facilities within brownfield assets;

2. Remediation, restoration and funding strategies from mine operators and fossil fuel companies (upholding of polluter pay laws: the orphan programs, integrate attribution science, e.g. Saul Luciano Lliuya v. RWE case);

3. Refining, facility, and pipeline consolidation plans from midstream companies (considering 1.);

4. Trans-national high voltage electrical grid and electric transport infrastructure considering 1;

5. Restoration and energy reduction subsidies, beyond polluter pay and climate harm compensation obligations;

6. Fossil fuel emission reduction plans consistent with the Paris Agreement;

7. Water and mineral resource circular system procedures.

We, the members of the Calgary Citizens on Climate Change, call upon the Government of Canada to adopt the foregoing protocols and in so doing to assume a climate leadership position consistent with the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the Obligations of States with respect to Climate Change.

Sincerely,

Jenny Yeremiy (Calgary), Gord Petersen (Okotoks), Barbara Janusz (Calgary), Dr. David Swann (Calgary), Michael Kerfoot (Cremona), Joan Wiseman (Calgary), Colin Smith (Calgary), and Colleen Rosenegger (Calgary).

To add your name:

Send the same email to the same email addresses, add your MP if you like, and Cc me at jenny@thegravitywell.net.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend SPOG day in Sundre, Alberta. My friend Susan joined me and circulated the Forever-Canadian.ca petition. The response to the petition was mixed but mostly positive, in fact, Susan and I will be returning to the area to collect signatures soon! Stay tuned for the day and time.

One man made his position perfectly clear, “Alberta needs to be independent”. “What does that mean?” I asked him. Does it mean that the Alberta oil and gas industry no longer receives the most subsidies of any G20 nation? Does it mean that no new pipelines will be built to Canadian coasts? Great! How about oil and gas site clean up and restoration, who will hold the industry to account?

I explained that, as a Geophysicist and oil and gas liability expert, I have always wanted the Federal government to intervene more. That the provincial government is not doing enough to hold the industry to account and I am certain the problem will get worse without other provinces countering the continued environmental harm with us. He simply explained that “Ottawa needs to get its grip off of Alberta, transfer payments are killing us.”

There is no question that the province of Alberta needs to shake foreign interference and take responsibility of our precious resources. Management decisions with respect to our lands and resources, especially clean freshwater, are NOT within Albertan or Indigenous control. On this point, I agree completely, our sovereignty is on the line. Let’s place the blame correctly, though. Alberta is not shipping four times what we use in fossil fuel, gravel, or lumber resources to Ottawa, these resources are going mostly to the United States or elsewhere.

Yes, we pay taxes to Ottawa but Alberta is a net benefactor of Ottawa’s investment today. We are not giving more than we are receiving. According to The Fraser Institute, a long-standing supporter of the foreign interference into Alberta’s oil and gas industry, Alberta paid $3 billion in transfer payments in 2024. Meanwhile, Alberta received $29.6 billion in fossil fuel subsidies last year. The largest investment into fossil fuels by Ottawa, ever!

I am currently listening to Albertan’s own, Geoff Dembicki’s book The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change—which is being made into a TV series, by the way! Geoff’s book explains how foreign investors (the Koch Brothers, Exxon Mobil, and Shell) sought to make money off Alberta’s oil sands. They were also made aware of the impacts on the climate that the extraction, development, refining, and burning of fossil fuel would have if it were to continue, in the 1950s. By the 1970s, these three were measuring the anticipated climate impacts from the extraction, development, refining, and burning of fossil fuels, internally. In 1977, they clearly outlined the expected detrimental impacts. Their models were proven accurate by climate scientists in 1988. And by 1995 an Alberta-led climate denial campaign was born and continues with worldwide coordination, even stronger today.

Why Alberta?

The question of “Why Alberta” is leading the world wide climate denial campaign has been plaguing me for a long time. Geoff’s research supports my understanding as an oil and gas geoscientist. The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin’s oil and gas reserves, including bitumen, have been understood for a long time. The cover image for this article is a map from 1925 which outlines the pay contours of the oil sands deposits surrounding the Fort McMurray settlement and the Athabasca River. What these executives also well-understood is reserves, quality and quantity. Internal documents from within the companies of Suncor (Sun Oil/the Koch Bros.), Imperial (Exxon), and Shell explain their scientists and executives understood the quality of Alberta’s bitumen deposits meant it would suffer most severely from policies aimed to limit fossil fuel development. Policies required to limit catastrophic climate damages would hurt their Alberta bitumen investments most because they are the dirtiest deposits in the world. The shear quantity of Alberta’s oil sand deposits were simply too sweet for these executives to concede; they chose to take the lead in misleading, instead.

What now?

On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice ruled that states must honour international climate policy or be subject to litigation by climate impacted communities and nations. The actions of these executives are officially illegal. For Alberta to become a sovereign entity, in real life, the path forward is now clear. We follow International law, the laws of nature, or the laws of the Earth; take your pick. We achieve sovereignty within Canada or through the settlement of Treaties 6, 7, and 8. Either way, we are settling with these misleaders. The former, allows us to work with our neighbours, the latter aims to separate and divide us from fighting them.

Either way, we are beholden to what our location may provide as limits near and climate damages become more severe. Personally, I want more support in fighting back against these strong, misleading forces than less, and want to see the “most responsible industry” do right by Albertans, First Nations, Metis, my kids, and yours. Once and for all. The fight is upon us, of this there is no doubt. Do you seek to unite or separate and with who against what? Context matters. We are on the same team, either way.

It was never arbitrary and now it is has been made universal law. The limits to our stable environment which were modelled and set at COP21 in 2015 were officially outlined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on June 23, 2025. “This is a victory for our planet for climate justice and for the power of young people to make a difference,” says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “So what?” says my spouse. “None of this matters with Trump in power. Look at what is happening in Gaza right now, the USA doesn’t care about International Law.” “You and I are both right”, I replied.

I cannot deny the atrocities and climate harms being perpetrated today. But 1.5 degrees warming and other biogeophysical limits will persist no matter our approach to it. There is only one way forward: staying within the ecological limits of the planet. If the ruling doesn’t stop perpetrators, the Earth will, and when it does the ICJ measuring stick (and others) will tell us who done it, to what degree, and how to calculate and assign damages.

A great summary of the ICJ ruling in outlined by Andrew Griffiths on LinkedIn. He explains it calls for the recognition of the science, outlines legal duties, explains where the responsibility lies, the rights of the affected, and what is at stake. The UN summary explains, “Failure of a State to take appropriate action to protect the climate system from GHG emissions — including through fossil fuel production, fossil fuel consumption, the granting of fossil fuel exploration licences or the provision of fossil fuel subsidies — may constitute an internationally wrongful act which is attributable to that State.”

For Canada, who provided nearly $30 billion in fossil fuel subsidies in 2024 alone, continues to humour carbon capture and storage on fossil fuel production as a climate solution, and is promoting “decarbonization” rather than “net zero” efforts, this means we are in for a rude awakening. Trying to sell fossil fuel products to the nations who are experiencing climate harm is already proving fruitless, and this ruling justifies swifter fossil fuel retreat.

In response to President Trump’s tariffs, China has nearly ceased USA LNG imports and sees its current LNG-fueled heavy-duty vehicle market as local and short-lived. “LNG price volatility and increasingly competitive electric alternatives.” And other nations do NOT have the capability to receive LNG for transport, as the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) also explained in May, “Other Asian countries do not share China’s inherent qualities that enabled its LNG trucking surge. With costs declining, electric heavy-duty vehicles could emerge as Asia’s main displacer of diesel in road transport.” An unhealthy environment for LNG Canada’s expansion.

Both coal and oil supply are outpacing demand in 2025 with OPEC+ nations flooding the market with cheaper alternatives to Canadian heavy crude, lowering prices to critical levels. While the Canadian oil and gas industry was poised to provide record production levels in H1 2025, the limited capability of other-than-USA nations to process our product means we are mostly limited to the USA’s tariff ridden market before it may be resold by them at a premium price elsewhere.

The stellar economics and stability of renewable energy sovereignty has gripped the World’s imagination and the energy pathway is becoming crystal clear.

Ember, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research shows us that solar electricity generation growth is accelerating while natural gas power is losing significant momentum.

Meanwhile, climate damages and social injustices are at all time highs and there is real work to be done in our country (on site clean up and closure), and around the world (climate damages), to limit Canadian taxpayer liability. The ICJ ruling empowers Nation States to expect businesses to follow the laws of the land or pay up. The Government of Canada now needs to expect corporations to adopt genuine climate action towards staying within the physical constraints of the Earth. In other words, corporations, and professionals (like me) who work for them, can no longer wing it or lie, we must try.

What Should Canada do with the ICJ Ruling?

Read more

To seek answers on water quality concerns, Jenny attended the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation’s Town Hall with Premier Smith. An Okotoks local took his 30 seconds to ask the critical question: “Does [the Government of Alberta (GOA] support the science that climate change is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels?” Their responses are instructive; they seek to obscure the urgency and severity of the climate crisis by focusing on a 1,000-year-scale rather than the fossil fuel-burning window of the last 150 years.

Let’s remind ourselves of what's up, both locally and globally.

Locally, there is evidence of harmful pollution in our air, water, snowpack, and most notably in aquatic species, which impacts human consumption. Alberta’s oilsands emissions show a 143% increase since 2005. Premier Smith omits the early warning signs that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) expansion is not worth the risk, she fails to mention the seven fold underestimation of emission from idle wells across the producing province. She says nothing of the GOA lifting flaring regulations meant to safeguard Albertans, ensuring our resource revenue is maintained and oil and gas reserves are preserved. While Premier Smith harps on about federal overreach, the Alberta Energy Regulator’s central mandate is being violated, as is the rule of law.

Premier Smith demands new pipelines be built to double Alberta’s oil and gas production using her Rube Goldberg “decarbonization” machine which includes carbon capture and storage (CCS), direct air capture (DAC), and transport rail to pipeline emission offset fantasies. The $34.9 billion Canadian-taxpayer Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline investment is already facing a “very tight North American heavy market”. Even if annual cash flow were to exceed $1 billion, TMX would not pay out for more than 30 years. In 2024, it was $712 million.

Globally, fossil fuel markets are displaying fragility. The Indonesian coal industry is risking a tough transition as demand declines. The LNG shipping sector is under pressure as nearly 60 carriers sit idle. China is highlighting that LNG trucking may play a minimal role in driving LNG imports. Underperformance visible in the S&P500. Pakistan is selling excess LNG amid supply glut. And just this week, both oil and gas storage surprises in the United States signal a bearish dynamic in both markets.

What could Alberta do instead? Dr. Tricia Stadnyk of the University of Calgary says it best: clean water should be the central focus of all decision-making. Instead of increasing Alberta’s annual freshwater contamination at a rate of about 270 million m³ per year or 4.65 million barrels per day, we should be restoring it. A doubling of oil sands production would contaminate more than 9 million barrels of freshwater per day. Premier Smith, is it acceptable to pollute 9 million barrels a day of Alberta’s water on a going forward basis? It is not.

Focusing first on Alberta’s water would kickstart a multi-decadal $260+ billion restoration economy. It would clean up both the conventional and oilsands industries, supported by Polluter Pay, which was the foundational principle in the development of our regulatory framework, and which continues to be strengthened by the work of scientists and researchers.

In this scenario, rather than build out new developments, polluting industries clean-up and restore lands to meet Species at Risk objectives. In 2022, the GOA itself wrote these very objectives into provincial law with precedent-setting sub regional plans, enabled through land stewardship legislation.

A water focus would limit financial exposure and climate damages. It would also allow us to stop the malpractice of clearcut logging and reckless gravel mining of our vital waterways and natural water filtration systems.

Instead, the GOA and their business-as-usual backers are hurtling the province towards financial and ecological collapse. With all the data at their disposal, they are revising or, worse, abandoning our country’s goals and commitments by villainizing climate policies, rather than to suck it up and deal. They hobble the renewable energy industry by requiring the kind of financial deposits that legacy industries are not being asked for, and continue to bail out bad businesses at the expense of companies in good standing, by illegally prioritizing solvency ahead of liability.

In Okotoks, Jenny was brought to tears when a grandmother asked this question of the Premier and Minister: “What are we going to tell our kids and grandkids when we have no clean water left and cannot undo what you’ve done?” We know today that Albertans want genuine responsible development, yet to Premier Smith and her government, “responsible development” is just a sales pitch and a smokescreen for their single-minded devotion to the self-serving fossil fuel industry which is entering its sunset years, and refuses to go quietly.

What will we tell our grandkids, indeed.

Jenny Yeremiy is a Geophysicist and oil and gas liability expert who hosts The Gravity Well podcast to share the stories of the people looking out for our home.

Roger Gagne, founder of the Climate Plan Alberta initiative, has been working at fostering neglected conversations around climate change for over a decade.

Good Afternoon Minister Schulz, (To: epa.minister@gov.ab.ca, cc: minister.energy@gov.ab.ca, Banff.Kananaskis@assembly.ab.ca, Calgary.Buffalo@assembly.ab.ca, Livingstone.Macleod@assembly.ab.ca, Banff.Kananaskis@assembly.ab.ca, Calgary.Buffalo@assembly.ab.ca, Calgary.Glenmore@assembly.ab.ca, Nenshi@albertandp.ca, Premier@gov.ab.ca)

Thank you for facing the Southern Alberta community last week. For me, it is exhausting to have to stand up for your clean drinking water, hear you lie to us, and receive your anger when we are not buying it. Just because you say it, does not make it true.

If you proceed with allowing coal exploration or development in the Eastern Slopes you are going against the collective wishes and wellbeing of the people of Alberta and Saskatchewan. And you are going against all of the scientific and economic evidence that tells you NOT to proceed.

What you know, for the record:

1) There is NO way to mine which will not pollute our water: there is clear evidence that bioaccumulation of pollutants from legacy mining practices at Grassy have occurred, making fish toxic to eat. This likely is also why trout populations have decreased, too. Information from your office:

Fish remain high in selenium long after mountaintop coal mines close.

There is evidence coal contamination in the snow pack:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c02596

Evidence of its created atmospheric pollution:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00677

Evidence its in the rivers:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749124000423

2) Even if closed pit mining works, it has been noted by Atrium in their statement of claim that "closed pit" mining is too expensive so they will simply sue us instead.

https://www.listcorp.com/asx/atu/atrum-coal-limited/news/atrum-coal-files-an-amended-statement-of-claim-3155111.html

3) You know there is evidence that the coal reserves at Grassy Mountain are grossly overstated, that there are likely only 2.5 years of economic reserves. These statements are on the record with the Alberta Energy Regulator. As one who took the Grassy site tour, I can tell you it is obvious there is no economic resource there. It was shut down for that reason. Clearly.

Cornelis Kolijn has made it perfectly clear that Teck left for economic reasons and Gina made a bad purchase. The lawsuits you keep pumping up are not what you claim they are. Your role is to MINIMIZE legal exposure for Albertans, not promote the plaintiff's claims. This exploration project will NOT delineate anything. The scope is too small to prove resource potential, if anything the new cores will prove how little resource there is. Again, the site was deemed uneconomical by both the provincial and federal government just 3 years ago. Cornelis is interviewed along with the former head of Science in Alberta Environment, explaining all the reasons NOT to invest in coal and to incorporate science into your decision-making processes.

4) There is no market for the coal, the quality is inadequate for metallurgical coal, and even if it were metallurgical coal quality, green hydrogen is the new form of steel making in major centers (China and India). https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/mining-metals/how-green-hydrogen-is-transforming-india-s-steel-sector

5) Pro-coal supporters, such as Joseph Fournier, use the Western Standard to provide misinformation to the public. He points to studies carried out under laboratory conditions, which is the only way to contain toxicity: under lab conditions. It is dangerous for your office not to be broadcasting the (above) 4 papers, work carried out by government scientists, and instead allow lab condition studies to be the prevailing argument in the general discourse here. Your department would be wise to provide the public with the overwhelming evidence your office holds and make clear statements against the misleading statements by this organization.

6) The Milk River Irrigation District has been closed down FOR THE SUMMER. It's my understanding farmers are looking to the Old Man to make up for their lost volumes. The Old Man basin is not properly protected and over allocated. Proceeding with using any water for any kind of coal mining activity when our agriculture and beef sector is facing total losses is the most irresponsible action your government can take for us. Industry water should be cut off as much as possible right now, this is a recipe for disaster and you are the ones holding the bag as continued disasters strike. https://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2025/06/18/were-in-really-tough-shape-milk-river-irrigation-area-shut-down-for-summer-at-midnight-monday/

Please do NOT proceed with Grassy or any other Eastern Slopes coal exploration, listen to Albertans who are looking out for you. Water is life! Not fossil fuels.

Sincerely,

Jenny Yeremiy, P. Geoph | Host & Public Activist | Mohkinstsis | Calgary, Alberta
The Gravity Well

Do you have any greenwashing or misinformation complaints to share with me?

Please share them to jenny@thegravitywell.net.

Onwards!

Jenny Yeremiy, P. Geoph, The Gravity Well Podcast Host and Public Activist

Understanding that over consumption the major driver of planetary breakdown, the top household consumption per capita spender was the United States of America at $43,931 in 2021. Knowing productivity, or Gross Domestic Product (GDP), can no longer be the measure of a nation’s success, the USA is second to Bermuda with the Cayman Islands taking the third spot in “individual consumption per share of (GDP)”. A rapid reduction of emissions, through either environmental disaster or climate regulation, means an end to the global military-industrial complex while “the United States spends more on the military than any other country, up to almost 40% of the total military expenditures worldwide.” If there is anything to take away from the outcome of the United States 2024 election is that this once great nation is no longer fit to lead.

My middle sister worked for victims services about eight years in my home town of St. Albert, Alberta. St. Albert is the epitome of US suburbia, extremely white and wealthy. I knew the only homeless person the city had in the 1990s by name, Louis. It was a shock to find out how overloaded victims services is in St. Albert. My sister would explain, often through tears, how difficult it was to see and hear the daily stories of abuse. We would discuss the circumstances at length, anonymous. I would ask over and over again, “How can someone stay in these abusive relationships?” After leaving the work, from the lack of support and an inability to continue to be witness to serial abuse, my sister and I concluded the victims cannot see another way. Fast forward to 2022, after twenty two years of trying to promote “responsible development” within the Alberta oil and gas industry I finally saw my abuser in full technicolour.

I am a Geophysicist by education and practice for 20 years but grew an interest liability management after going through the sale’s process at a start up company called Black Shire Energy. That is the clean up and restoration of Alberta’s 275,000 well, pipeline, and facility sites scattered across the province. These liabilities are estimated to be $260 billion while the industry is spending less than $1 billion annually to address them. $130 billion of these liabilities are attributed to the Athabasca oil sands, the world’s largest environmental disaster underway.

By 2020 I was working for Canada’s largest producer, Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), when oil prices fell to zero during the global pandemic shutdown. In response, the Federal government provided a $1.7 billion economic stimulus package to rehabilitate sites across all three fossil fuel developing provinces British Columbia ($100 million), Alberta ($1.2 billion), and Saskatchewan ($400 million). My job was to review, recommend, and communicate the new policy and regulation improvements required by each province in order to be eligible for the federal funds, which was ultimately is Canadian taxpayer dollars.

BC, AB, and SK have a unique system, called the “Orphan Program” whereby the liabilities for any defunct company are the responsibility of the companies still standing. That responsibility is divvied up by per cent share of the existing liabilities. This meant that as companies became insolvent, CNRL was responsible for 22% of their liabilities. I would advise CNRL on the basis of what goes around, comes around. If company X goes bankrupt because the regulations are too lenient, CNRL would be on the hook for the costs. Their business model is to acquire, so they need to expect this problem to grow for them as they do. Example being the acquisition of Chevron, last month.

For example, the first task I was given was to review the financial health scoring system. Within a few months in the role, I was explaining that the ratios used to measure financial health were too forgiving. That to apply appropriate financial health scores would require tightening up the metrics and acting quicky while prices were suppressed. The problem was to accurately account for financial health meant putting two thirds of the companies into bankruptcy. An approach, I was told, was not popular within the Alberta Government or Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

Month after month, I would show data as to how the liability issue was getting worse by not taking swift action. The AER allowed transfer after transfer of liabilities to companies that clearly did not have the financial wherewithal or technical capabilities. I would discuss at length with my mentor how none of this made sense. Why won’t the government act? Why doesn’t the AER use the tools they have to hold companies accountable. I was privy to exclusive or industry lobby group meetings with government and regulatory officials from every level of staff to executives. I was an industry lobbyist without fully understanding what a lobbyist was.

In early 2022, with a mission to “influence the legacy of our industry positively for all involved” I decided I would learn three things: 1) What does it cost to clean up and reclaim sites well? 2) How can we forecast the work better? and 3) What does “best in class” liability reduction look like? Fast forward to June 21, 2022, I was presenting the concept of “lifecycle management” to my Geophysicist and Geologist peers at the annual Calgary GeoConvention.

I explained to them how we are not seeing the problems we are creating and that the work to closedown the system is very similar to the work that built it up. That the real measure of success is sites removed off the land with the environment restored, and that the Alberta government finally put sites on timelines through brand new land stewardship laws! Instead of mapping reservoirs, we can map contamination plumes. Instead of picking drilling locations, we can ensure wells are safely put to bed. That there is feel-good work to employ us for decades to come!

A long time friend was in the audience, he asked, “Why are you sharing this with us? Isn’t this work already happening?” “Yes, the work is happening”, I replied, “but there is a lack of leadership.” Little did the audience know that I had a meeting scheduled the next morning with four CNRL executives in a boardroom I did not know existed.

I was given a disciplinary letter, told that: I do not communicate well; information required of me was not provided to the executive team with timely notice; that the three initiatives I set out for the year are no longer my responsibility; and all work I was to do needed to be cleared by my new boss with no scientific background and no understanding of the liability problems. I told them what I had learned from my sister, “Do you know why the abused stay in abusive relationships? Because they cannot see another way forward. You are in an abusive relationship with your leaders and you cannot see outside the abuse. I am not the problem.” I exclaimed, “Liability is the problem, I am trying to solve this problem and you do not even want to hear the solutions.” When I exited the room I nearly pulled the door off its hinges.

Here I am, more than two years later. And what have I learned?

1. Alberta is leading the oil and gas industry strategy for the Western World. What we do and don’t do sets the tone. Here are two examples: from 1975, “While Exxon is an American company, the document at issue here was stamped with the seal of the central library of Imperial Oil Limited, and included an article by Imperial Chairman and CEO W.O. Twaits. This article, called ‘The Environment: Whose Responsibility?’ is actually a transcript of a video that was made for Imperial employees, ‘to tell the people who work for Imperial what the company expects from them in the fight against pollution.' Twaits was clear that he was addressing ‘every Imperial oil person, from board room to service station,’ and that all of their participation was necessary for upholding the company’s commitment to ‘environmental protection as a way of life.’ This video and, later, its publication in written form, served the parallel purposes of proclaiming that Imperial was ‘a leader in the pollution fight’ and that this fight needed to be taken up by every individual employee in order to be effective.'“ And secondly, last weekend the Alberta government, supported by the Canadian Oil and Gas lobbyists, is abandoning it’s supposed Emission Reduction and Energy Development Plan. The platform it released and ran on just last spring in the 2023 provincial election.

2. The government and regulator only answers to corporations. I requested podcast participation from representatives within the Departments of Energy and Environment as wells as the Regulator (AER) on the “most important issue for Albertans, the $260 billion liability clean up and restoration”. My request was denied outright from all three branches, I informed the media contacts that I have met with these folks several times in the two years that I was in the industry, in liability management for CNRL. Meetings with the Assistant and Deputy Energy Ministers, the President and Directors within the AER, as well as several executives and directors within the Ministry of Environment. The reply was “no”. The advisor to the premier, who is also on the AER board, yes, that is a complete conflict of interest told me that he has signed too many NDAs to participate and that he is “working on a project that I’m hoping will change the channel” and later that not speaking with the public is “how we got into this mess”. The US oil and gas lobby is ready to follow Alberta’s lead.

3. The only future we have is the one where we citizens and stewards work together and stand up for our communities, water, and the living world. I attended a townhall last night, in Nanton, Alberta.

   

   A discussion about not polluting our headwaters, the headwaters that serve 40% of North America, with coal mining. A battle fought and won just three years prior only to return again because an Australian billionaire was duped into buying a mine that was closed decades ago due to “a lack of economic value”. The only tool used to drive decisions within the Regulator, Mandy Olsgard tells us from her experience there. It was extremely well intentioned and attended. Corb Lund, a country music star and Southern Alberta rancher, held the room together by singing a song and stating, “this is not about left or right but about right and wrong." As well as, “I do not care who you vote for as long as you hold them to account.”

There is no time to waste and no climate crisis leadership within the Alberta Government or our Corporate Executives, and the United States is about to unleash the Alberta playbook. Do not look away in defeat, hear the plea of the people of the United States of America. They don’t got this, if we don’t got this, and we do not have this. Seeing another way is up to you and me, or other countries, not the United States of America.

Here is what I am doing about it, should you wish to get involved in any capacity, please fill out this form.

Sincerely,

Jennifer D. Yeremiy, P. Geoph