How the oil sector can really help

I wish I could congratulate the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers for cutting 80 per cent of flaring.

Hopefully, this work can continue so 100 per cent of Alberta’s valuable nonrenewable gas can be utilized, not just lost to the environment and creating real and dangerous problems for future generations. However, as research indicates producers underestimated emissions by up to 370 per cent, congratulations are still not in order.

CAPP also has a plan to reduce methane loss through decreased venting, leak detection, sealing compressors, retrofitting pneumatics and developing new technologies.

What does surprise me is they are holding new government regulations hostage with a proposal to eliminate 7,000 jobs if upcoming methane regulations are too “prescriptive.”

The new regulations will propose to do those things, so why the need for this threat?

The oilpatch is automating, which means 40 per cent fewer workers on rigs and driverless trucks in the next three years. Are those the jobs it now wants to save?

Instead of always pressuring governments for more lenient regulations, here is a suggestion: Find a way to drain methane bubbles out of melting permafrost in the Arctic before they release, causing a natural feedback loop that will increase climate change exponentially. Jule Asterisk, Slave Lake