Alberta Regulator Declares Decision Unanimous After Excluding Everyone Who Disagreed
The Alberta Energy Regulator has approved a massive expansion of the Vista Coal Mine without bothering with a public hearing, concluding that listening to the public would only delay the important work of pretending the public agreed.
The decision clears the way for Canada’s largest thermal coal mine to become North America’s largest, because if you’re going to accelerate climate change, you may as well set a continental record doing it.
Conservation groups warned the project could damage headwaters, poison downstream ecosystems with selenium and arsenic, and further threaten endangered trout. Regulators responded by determining those concerns weren’t significant enough to warrant hearing out loud.
Government officials hailed the approval as proof Alberta remains open for business, provided the business involves extracting natural resources faster than anyone can file an objection.
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