Clean Up Your Mess

06/19/2026

NEW: Alberta’s Energy Regulator changes its rules to muzzle industry opposition... Yet again, the Alberta Energy Regulator puts the public interest on the back-burner: https://drillanddash.substack.com/p/albertas-energy-regulator-changes

Yet again, the Alberta Energy Regulator puts the public interest on the back-burner.

06/17/2026

Instead of forcing the industry to pay for their cleanup obligations, the provincial government is pushing a new plan that puts taxpayers on the hook for private well cleanup costs. This proposal, the "Mature Asset Strategy" or MAS, completely violates the polluter pays principle, a foundational principle of Canadian law that basically means if a company makes a mess, they have to clean it up.

Taxpayer money should be going towards schools, hospitals, and things real people need, not towards a massive bailout for companies that broke their promises. We need to stop this giveaway and stop the Alberta Government's MAS: CleanUpYourMess.ca

06/15/2026

According to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, "As of December 31, 2024, at least $253.9 million of municipal property taxes have gone unpaid by oil and gas companies... Despite government efforts to address the issue, the findings make it clear that these measures have fallen short, leaving rural municipalities to shoulder the growing financial burden."

When companies fail to pay their municipal taxes, there are critical services that will need to be cut as a result. And there are even examples of municipalities that have had to raise property taxes to make up the gap left by delinquent companies. The majority of companies do pay their property taxes, but the bad actors are enabled by a government who continually prioritize the needs of private industry and the elite over regular Albertans.

06/11/2026

Alberta is sitting on a $320 billion time bomb. The oil and gas industry built it. And if nobody fixes it, you're paying the bill. Whether you live in Albert...

06/11/2026

In October the team at Redwater Insights released a major report detailing key findings about the oil & gas cleanup crisis in Alberta. Their team found that "more than 80% of unplugged wells either produce no oil or gas or produce in marginal quantities."

It also found that many oil & gas companies have a startling record of non-compliance, which basically means that when companies do something that blatantly violates regulations they rarely face any real consequences.

The Alberta government's solution for all of this, led by Danielle Smith? Downloading cleanup costs onto the public and letting corporations off the through the proposed Mature Asset Strategy. Do you think the public should be on the hook for oil & gas cleanup costs? Let us know in the comments!

06/09/2026

HOW much are we potentially paying for oil and gas cleanup?? 🫪😩😭

We know all the different stats and numbers can be a lot, so we’ve got your back. We’re breaking down all the ways that oil & gas companies in Alberta are downloading costs onto the public purse instead of paying their bills 💸

What would you rather spend $60 billion in public money on?? Let us know below ⬇️

06/05/2026

This is a super helpful infographic the Pembina Institute to under the scale of the orphan well crisis in Alberta.

The crisis isn’t some problem from years ago that we’re just getting around to - the orphan well registry doubled this year alone!

Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for years of industry neglect.

06/03/2026

A survey from October 2025 found that a supermajority of Albertans, 92% of respondents in fact, think that the oil and gas industry should be responsible for the final cleanup of wells. Around 87% of those surveyed supported the government requiring companies to cover their unpaid property taxes to rural municipalities, and another 84% said that companies need to settle their unpaid rent owed to Albertan landowners. While speaking to The Energy Mix, veteran pollster Janet Brown said that they "very rarely see research with numbers this high. It clearly shows that public sentiment is on the side of industry taking control of these problems."

No public money for private cleanup issues! Make the polluters pay!

05/21/2026

STATEMENT: Last Friday’s announcement of the Alberta-Canada agreement on industrial carbon pricing and the construction of a new oil sands pipeline is another gift to highly-profitable oil companies who owe Albertans billions in unpaid cleanup costs for aging and inactive infrastructure across the province.

Read the full statement here: https://drillanddash.substack.com/p/statement-alberta-canada-energy-agreement

05/20/2026

This spring, Clean Up Your Mess hosted town halls across the province to raise awareness about the growing crisis of oil & gas cleanup in Alberta and the government’s plan to push industry’s cleanup costs onto taxpayers.

We had hundreds of people show up ready to learn and take action against the Mature Asset Strategy and the risks it poses to the health and well-being of our communities, our tax dollars, and the land, air, and water we depend on.

Our campaign has previously hosted town halls in Didsbury, Warburg, Falher, Vegreville, and online. Where else would you like to see us host an event?

Our spring events were done in partnership with amazing landowners, community advocates, and organizations like Alberta Talks, Alberta Environmental Network, the Pembina Institute, Alberta Wilderness Association, For Our Kids Alberta, SCAN Edmonton, and more!