Groups opposed to industrial development in northern Alberta — including oil and gas drilling and pipelines — are unlikely to cease their legal and illegal efforts to stop it. However, “extra-legal obstruction” of development won’t become widespread unless the groups join forces, which isn’t likely, a researcher has found.

“Five potential sources of opposition can be identified: individual saboteurs, eco-terrorists, mainstream environmentalists, First Nations and the Metis people,” wrote University of Calgary Professor Tom Flanagan in a recent report funded by Canadian energy company Nexen Inc. “All except the Metis have at various times used some combination of litigation, blockades, occupations, boycotts, sabotage and violence against economic development projects which they saw as a threat to environmental values or aboriginal rights.”

Flanagan wrote that the groups are unlikely to cooperate because of “different social characteristics and conflicting political interests.”

EnCana Corp. has become a frequent target of sabotage by those opposed to energy development in the Dawson Creek, BC, area. Last week The Royal Canadian Mounted Police stepped up their investigation of two recent bombings along EnCana natural gas pipelines. The company and law enforcement have been tangling with a bomber or bombers since last fall (see Daily GPI, Jan. 14; Dec. 19, 2008; Oct. 16, 2008).

In assessing the risks to developers from the five types of opponents, Flanagan said resource industries in northern Alberta “will undoubtedly face both violent and nonviolent obstruction in the future.” However, the risk is greatest from saboteurs and Treaty 8 First Nations, each of which represents a “medium overall” threat, he wrote.

Saboteurs offer a high risk of individual incidents but a low risk of coordination necessary to disrupt operations on a wide-scale basis, Flanagan wrote. While First Nations have a “long history of past blockades…there is no history of successful coordinated action that could impede industry on a large scale, and First Nations in the area have generally refrained from violence.”

Northern Alberta is a difficult area for eco-terrorists to operate and there has been no history of true eco-terrorism in the region, Flanagan wrote. Similarly, few mainstream environmentalists live in the region. The Metis “have no history of obstructive action.”

It isn’t just the energy industry that faces legal and illegal threats from activists. A consortium of U.S. and Canadian scientists working on a seismic study of the Coast Mountains in BC heard from an activist Tuesday when he claimed responsibility for destroying a seismic shot, which had been scheduled for blasting Friday.

“I took this action alone, without the participation or knowledge of any other person, association or organization. I accept full and sole responsibility for my action and look forward to the consequences,” wrote activist Ingmar Lee in his statement, as reported by The Vancouver Sun. The paper reported that the seismic field work involves about 50 student volunteers and is not intended to yield information on oil or natural gas.

Flanagan’s paper is titled “Resource Industries and Security Issues in Northern Alberta.” It is available at the Canadian Defense & Foreign Affairs Institute website, www.cdfai.org, in the “Publication Archive” under “Nexen Papers.”

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