Outrage as Plug Pulled on Coal Mine Public Hearing: The Tyee
The CEO of Alberta’s energy regulator pleased a foreign mining firm with an unprecedented order
Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee August 27
In an unprecedented move Rob Morgan, the CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator, has bowed to intense bullying from an Australian-based coal company and cancelled a planned public hearing on a large underground project near the town of Grande Cache.
Critics say the decision challenges the AER’s credibility in its role regulating coal development in the province, which is ruled by a political party committed to fast-tracking resource development.
On Thursday, Morgan, a former oil and gas executive, announced in a letter that he had unilaterally decided to cancel the scheduled October public hearing for the Summit steelmaking coal project (Mine 14) after owner Valory Resources asked for a cancellation, claiming a public hearing was both unnecessary and frivolous.
Read Andrew’s full piece in The Tyee . . .
I don't understand why the new owners of these Mines are getting away with all of this?! It is an Australian coal company - Valory Resources Inc. (Who are also named *Black Eagle - suing Albertans for 1.75 billion dollars filed Jan., 2023), that has acquired the Coal Leases for Mine 14 and Mine 16S in April, 2025 named SUMMIT COAL Mine from Maxim Power Corp. The dirty dogs Valory Resources also have 161 sq km of active coal Leases in very limited mining Category 2 lands, sitting on top of Corkscrew Mtn. over the Clearwater River 50 km west of Caroline - south of Rocky Mountain House - they call Blackstone!!🤬
Like Corkscrew Mtn, the summit Mines HAVE NEVER BEEN DEVELOPED as far as I understand and should have had to go through the approval process again because they ARE NOT ADVANCED Mines in physical terms as the ucp want to label them.
Robin Campbell past Dirty PC politician quickly became Lobbyist and president of the Coal Association of Canada after losing his seat. Campbell just sat on the Upper Smokey Regional Land planning group pushing for coal in Grande Cache area. Mine 14 i understand would be 4km from Grande Cache and sits on the Headwaters of the Upper Smoky!! He also has had a Working Group with the AER for years that permits him and the Coal companies to privately meet with the industry Captured Alberta Energy Regulator to inform them what the Coal industry needs with environmental regulations that differ from O&G... going to guess they need way more lenient rules and regulations than O&G! I'll bet he is behind ALL OF THIS! Campbell has lobbied BOTH the federal and provincial governments HARD to raise selenium levels the Coal industry is allowed to release into our rivers etc.
In fact, WE THE PEOPLE need to demand to know WHO is sitting in the Group DEVELOPING THE MODERNIZED COAL POLICY that they will PUSH through late this Fall.
Wanna bet Campbell was the aggressive overseer of this and even before the changing of The 1976 Coal Policy that was in place until the UCP secretly rescinded it with no public consultation? No way Kenney Nixon and crew had a clue.
The shame continues, where is the bottom for this horrible government?