Alberta environmentalists recently were given a reminder that they do not have all the weapons to win escalating conflicts with natural gas producers over drilling programs.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) nipped in the bud an attempt by industry critics to turn a well in scenic terrain into a test case. The AEUB stopped the fight — and approved the well — by accepting a strict interpretation of the legal doctrine of “standing” or defining who has power to force an industry project to undergo public hearings and environmental reviews.

The dispute centered on an exploration program by Compton Petroleum Corp. in postcard Alberta, a foothills region of high plains and mountain views southwest of Calgary beloved by Hollywood for Westerns as well as local ranchers who have dominated the region since the 19th Century. Clint Eastwood’s movie “Unforgiven” was filmed in the area. Legends of the Fall included some of the terrain, and Robert Duvall recently used it as a setting for a television series.

But Compton secured consent to its well from the property owners directly affected. In an AEUB ruling on a spring hearing, the company also beat off an attempt by self-appointed guardians of the region. The opposition included families in the district but not on the land parcel affected, rancher associations known as the Livingstone Landowners Group and Pekisko Group, the local government based in the foothills town of Pincher Creek and two environmental societies, the Alberta Wilderness Association and the Porcupine Hills Stewardship Association.

The critics claimed Compton’s well, rather than being just an exploration effort, was the thin edge of a wedge that begins intensive drilling of 800 wells on 110 sections, or square miles, of drilling rights held by the company along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The AEUB was urged to stop the program and hold a review of bigger issues such as the effects of industry on water sources, native grasslands, “biodiversity” and frontier heritage that combines with the scenery to make the area an Alberta symbol, international travel destination and outdoor film studio.

The AEUB observed that nothing stops outside interveners from turning an argument over a well license into such a celebrated case once someone directly affected demands hearings. The only difference is that the outsiders who participate, unlike residents in the path of the drilling, are not entitled to AEUB orders requiring companies to cover costs of the proceedings.

The AEUB discovered some reasons to doubt whether the Compton well deserved to become a test case when members went out of their way to check out the location being made a symbol by the protesters.

On a visit to the scene, the board discovered the area is extensively cultivated rather than a stretch of native prairie vegetation. The nearest residents live more than a kilometer from the well site and are separated from it by a tall hill.

Local water wells are also at higher elevations than the Compton drilling site. And far from being pristine and untouched, the area can already be reached via a local road, the AEUB pointed out.

The environmental protesters were urged to follow the board’s example and do some due diligence by checking the state of drilling locations against maps that may be incomplete, done on too large a scale to portray local conditions or out of date.

There also was no confirmation that the contested exploration well foreshadowed intensive exploitation with hundreds of development holes. The case appeared to include considerable confusion over the type of drilling involved. Some critics suspected a coalbed methane program was a foot, possibly because the geological name for the target formation included the word Wyoming. But Compton described the program as relatively deep exploration for potentially prolific conventional foothills gas reserves.

Industry critics predicted the case would confirm Alberta has reached a proverbial “tipping point” where the regime and the public at large grow weary of the industry drilling thousands of gas wells every year. But the AEUB told Compton to go ahead and field a rig, then only return with a larger development application if the exploration well uncovers a major new supply source justifying much more drilling in the touchy area.

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