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- Published on Wednesday, 05 June 2019 10:12
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It started with a freedom of information request.
Then we asked you to pitch in to help us pay to get our hands on lobbying records between the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). You came through, and we forked over $643.95 for 626 pages of documents.
Our Alberta reporter, Sharon J. Riley, has been poring over these records, trying to make sense of endless meeting minutes, reports, emails and plans for coffee dates. Then something about automating drilling approvals grabbed her attention.
For our second article resulting from these records, Sharon found that the regulator is planning to automate the vast majority of new oil and gas well approvals. That means no human regulator will review most applications. The regulator calls its new plan "game changing," and says it's "something that few regulators have attempted."
It turns out CAPP representatives have been lobbying for this for a while — and they were thrilled.
Why were they thrilled? Because by CAPP's estimate, the new automated approval system would mean an application for a new well could be approved in 15 minutes.
That's not all we've been up to his week. Keep scrolling because we've got the latest installment in our reader-funded Muskrat Falls series, the last chance to enter our contest and much more.
Editor-in-chief
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