B.C. subsidizes energy drilling on caribou habitat it promised to protect, study says
CBC
British Columbia is subsidizing oil and gas well drilling on the same land it has promised to protect for caribou, new research has found.
"The B.C. government has made a lot of commitments to caribou habitat restoration and it's not really working," said Adriana DiSilvestro, a University of British Columbia graduate student and lead author on the project, which is published on the website of ARCGis Online, a cloud-based mapping software.
"The fact there are oil and gas operations being subsidized in areas the federal government has deemed critical habitat is a piece to this puzzle."
The researchers say the study was reviewed by several experts, including independent economist Robyn Allan, and they plan to submit their findings to a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
DiSilvestro and her colleagues first identified wells in northeastern B.C. and located them on federal maps showing critical habitat for woodland caribou, a threatened species for which the province has promised to develop a recovery plan.
The team then used government and industry data to determine which of those wells had benefited from a government subsidy. Those subsidies include programs such as the Deep Well Royalty Program, which covers part of the drilling and completion costs for these wells, up to $2.8 million per well, and can be used to reduce royalties by half.
DiSilvestro said the research shows 3,114 active oil and gas wells within critical caribou habitat in B.C. Of these, 1,678 wells — just over half — are run by companies that have received assistance from one of three provincial subsidy programs over the past three years.