Area United Conservative Party (UCP) MLA Jason Nixon is calling on the province to remove a recent appointee to the board of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).
Ed Whittingham, a former executive director with the Pembina Institute, was appointed to the board last month.
“We’d be happy to see him removed,” said Nixon, the MLA for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre. “It’s outrageous that the NDP government would appoint a foreign-funded, anti-oilsands, anti-pipeline activist like Mr. Whittingham to such an important government body.
“Mr. Whittingham’s appointment once again demonstrates the NDP’s hostile views towards Alberta’s oil and gas industry, despite public claims that they have changed.
“It’s not hard to speculate how much better our province’s economic state would be today if the activists’ pressure campaign for the U.S. president to block Keystone XL did not succeed, nor how better off our country could be if Energy East did not die in 2017.”
The AER oversees oil and gas development in the province.
The Pembina Institute is a Canadian non-profit think tank focused on energy, according to its website.
“I wish I could say I was shocked that the NDP would appoint such an individual (Whittingham) to the AER,” said Nixon. “But for those of us who have followed the NDP’s long history of anti-oil, anti-pipeline activism, this latest appointment is perfectly consistent with the NDP’s history.”
Nixon said if the UCP is elected to government it will review all recent board appointments.
Asked for a response to Nixon’s remarks, minister of energy spokesperson Mike McKinnon provided the following comments to the Gazette:
“Mr. Whittingham is a good and qualified appointment who believes strongly in the sustainable development of Alberta’s energy industry. We stand with him.
“Mr. Whittingham has been upfront about his concerns in the past about the sustainability and pace of oilsands development. Many Albertans have shared those concerns for many years. He’s also been clear that our government has changed the conversation by taking action.”
The Notley government is “addressing concerns head-on with real action like the oilsands emission limit,” he said.
“Jason Kenney’s (UCP leader) approach is a dead end. His decade of failure on pipelines is the result of ignoring environmental concerns,” he said.
