Sour gas issue part of wider of industry problem

Since last weekend, a series of reports from the National Observer, the Toronto Star and Global News have exposed the Saskatchewan Party’s deliberate choice to endanger public safety in order to avoid some public relations inconvenience for the oil sector.

Taken in isolation, the news should be shocking. Provincial authorities have long been aware of toxic hydrogen sulphide hot spots covering much of southeast Saskatchewan which have led to illness and death.

But the Wall government has decided it’s more concerned with the public relations “sensitivity” of letting people know they’re at risk than with a known public health hazard. And so it’s specifically chosen not to inform people about the danger and the steps they could take to protect themselves.

At the same time, any regulation has been left almost entirely in corporate hands. Not surprisingly, the industry responsible for putting the public at risk has chosen not to face any meaningful consequences for its actions.

There’s thus every reason for outrage about both callous corporate extractors and their Saskatchewan Party enablers. But there’s less reason to be surprised given how the sour gas issue fits into the wider operations of the oil industry.

After all, the controversy over fracking operations in the U.S. is virtually identical to that surrounding sour gas in Saskatchewan.

There, too, the extraction industry has concealed basic information about health and safety from the public in the name of preserving its own profits — with results ranging from unprecedented earthquakes to the contamination of drinking water. And there, too, governments have too often chosen to let the oil sector pile risks onto an unsuspecting public.

And the same issues also arise on climate change policy. Fossil fuel giants have long known about the science behind climate change — but with the help of pliant governments, they’ve spent that time manufacturing doubt, delaying effective policy responses and foisting the costs of inaction onto others. And people facing climate-related disasters ranging from hurricanes and floods to droughts and wildfires are paying the price.

Meanwhile, the dirty oil industry is also backed by massive public subsidies. According to the Stockholm Environment Institute, nearly half of the United States’ current oil production would be unprofitable without giveaways from state and federal governments. And the Trump administration is only looking to make matters worse with yet more tax breaks.

A reasonable response to that reality would be to question whether it’s worth trying to outspend the U.S. government in propping up an unprofitable and dying industry. (On that front, General Motors announced this week that it’s joining the movement toward phasing out internal combustion engines in the foreseeable future.)

But Wall has consistently operated under the theory that if other governments are offering to sacrifice their people and prosperity to the oil industry, the only possible response is to throw ourselves headlong into a race to the bottom. And it hasn’t hurt that the same oil operators profiting from that philosophy have been among the businesses lining Wall’s own pockets through party donations turned into salary top-ups.

Sadly, there’s no indication that the Saskatchewan Party’s leadership candidates are willing to recognize the profound moral failing in their party’s current prioritization of oil sector profits over public health and sound economic judgment. But it’s long past time for Saskatchewan’s voters to pass judgment on a party which is willing to see our province — and particularly rural residents — poisoned in order to serve its corporate backers.

...The extraction industry has concealed basic information about health and safety from the public in the name of preserving its own profits...