Alberta Landowners Sue Regulator Over Orphan Well Cleanup Costs
A group of Alberta landowners is taking the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to court for allegedly shortchanging oil and gas site cleanup efforts.
The lawsuit, led by environmental law charity Ecojustice, claims that the AER has improperly set the annual levy to industry at a rate far too low to cover the estimated $1.66 billion in cleanup costs for orphan wells on the books now.
Vice-chair of the Polluter Pay Federation and Alberta Land Rights Federation Mark Dorin said the Orphan Well Association was created as a 'safety net' to protect taxpayers from costly cleanup bills, but if properly funded, it is not enough to cover the estimated costs.
The AER sets an annual levy that is recommended by the regulator and approved by the provincial government. The current rate for 2026-27 is $154 million, which Dorin calls 'nowhere near enough' to cover the costs of reclaiming orphan wells and a backlog from previous years.