September 2026
Claire Kraatz featured on CBC conversation about abandoned oil and gas wells
Claire Kraatz featured on CBC conversation about abandoned oil and gas wells
A recent CBC Alberta at Noon radio program focused on the thousands of old, inactive oil and gas wells across rural Alberta. Although these wells are poisoning private and public lands and waterways, the fossil fuel companies that abandoned them are refusing to clean them up. And instead of holding these companies to account, the provincial government wants taxpayers to foot the bill.
The conversation features comments from Dwight Popovich, an Alberta landowner who is part of a lawsuit against the Alberta Energy Regulator, alleging that the AER is under-funding the effort to clean up oil, inactive, and/or abandoned wells. Another rural landowner, Mark Dorin, and Phillip Meintzer, co-founder of Coalition 4 Responsible Energy also joined, as did For Our Kids clean air campaign organizer Claire Kraatz.
Claire spoke about her concerns as an Albertan and as a parent, with a specific focus on the issue of methane emissions from these wells. Methane is a super-pollutant that is responsible for a third of all global warming and has also been linked to significant health harms, especially among children.
After Claire's comments, the hosts reference a recent McGill study that finds old, inactive oil and gas wells are emitting almost 7 times more methane than the official estimate.
Claire's comments start around the 36 minute mark.
