Teresa Patry is feeling gaslit by Alberta’s oil and gas regulator — and she’s not the only one.
The Vermilion, Alta., farmer and rancher has two active oil wells operating on her land, which, according to an independent air quality assessment, are venting a steady stream of methane and potentially dangerous chemicals downwind from where she lives with her family and livestock.
Patry can smell the fumes from her home, and she believes they are negatively impacting her health and that of her family and animals. But every time she calls the province’s energy regulator, she says they tell her everything is operating as it should be.
“Our home isn’t an industrial site, but it’s sort of been turned into one,” she told What On Earth host Laura Lynch.
Back in the day when provincial data was actually posted online (20 or so years ago), I read that Alberta’s take from oil producers was $1 per barrel … and it had been that way for decades. Alberta’s leadership has always seemed like it never wanted to bite the hand that fed it, and not only did that stick for the politicians, it also became the mantra for Albertans themselves.
It always astounds me to discover how cheap it is to buy governments.