Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Alberta has 170,000 plus inactive and abandoned oil wells and over 3000 orphan wells that have been abandoned by failed companies. It all adds up to a liability in excess of $30 billion against a total security deposit of less than $250 million. There is also a growing tax liability. In a survey, the Rural Municipalities Association of Alberta (RMA) found $245 million in unpaid property taxes owed by oil and gas companies in February 2021, a 200 percent increase from 2019. Lease arrears to land owners, are also in the millions. The speaker will argue that an average of 750 kilowatts solar energy can be installed on abandoned oil well sites by converting those without further impact on the farmland, thus creating a long-term source of revenue in the form of taxation to municipalities and lease payments to land owners. He will detail the possibilities of such installations and further contend that local renewable energy production can minimize the need for, expensive to construct, high-voltage transmission line