A few critical additions, including mandatory public consultation and binding limits on cumulative impacts, are needed if proposed new provincial land-use planning legislation is to better manage development and its impacts on Alberta's landscapes and communities.

Reductions in GHG "intensity" do not deliver reductions in actual emissions if industrial production continues to increase, as is the case in the oil sands sector. In its 2008 climate change plan, the government acknowledged that it expects Alberta's total GHG pollution to continue to increase until 2020.

Royal Dutch Shell has abandoned its written agreements to significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution at its Jackpine Mine and Muskeg River Mine Expansion oil sands projects.

Current water management practices cannot protect water in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories from the impacts of oil sands development, according to a new report by the Pembina Institute.

Matthew Bramley, Director of Pembina's climate change program, made the following statement in response to today's announcement of a Canada-U.S. dialogue on energy technology: "Given the level of ambition President Obama has already shown in tackling global warming, it's disappointing that the only thing Stephen Harper committed to today is holding talks on technology research and pilot projects..."

The Pembina Institute submitted comments on a draft Alberta Government policy that would allow in situ oil sands operations to burn dirtier fuels, which would significantly increase the intensity and total amount of greenhouse gas pollution and air emissions from the sector.

With available fresh water resources expected to decrease as a result of climate change, Alberta faces the challenge of meeting its growing demand for water in a sustainable manner, according to a new report by the Pembina Institute.

The Energy Resources and Conservation Board released a new directive today that could help reduce the future creation of toxic tailings waste from oil sands mining. Since 1967, oil sands mining operators have been allowed to manage tailings on a voluntary basis with little government enforcement. The new directive will, for the first time, require operators to submit annual plans, including schedules, for reducing toxic fluid tailings waste.

The Government of Alberta has repeatedly failed to respond to questions regarding its ability to effectively monitor and enforce water withdrawal restrictions for oil sands companies, noted a number of Alberta environmental groups.

In response to today’s release of the new Alberta Land-Use Framework (LUF), the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Northern Alberta have provided the Government of Alberta with a checklist for its successful implementation.

The extraction and refining of bitumen from Canada’s oil sands is taking a significant toll on migratory birds throughout North America. Danger in the Nursery: Impact on Birds of Tar Sands Oil Development in Canada’s Boreal Forest outlines the current and projected effects of the oil sands industry on migratory bird populations in Alberta’s boreal forest and along the Western Hemisphere’s flyways.

Alberta’s new Land-Use Framework could become one of the government’s most important policy and legislative initiatives in several decades, but its success is not guaranteed. A new report released today by the Pembina Institute and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Northern Alberta provides the Government of Alberta with a proposed implementation roadmap for the LUF.

A last-minute withdrawal by the oil sands industry from a negotiated agreement on wetlands has prompted calls from environmental groups that the Government of Alberta not give in to oil industry pressure, but rather deliver on overdue rules to protect and conserve wetlands across Alberta.

Pembina Institute experts offered reaction to party policy proposals during the 2008 federal election. Our views were presented from a strictly non-partisan perspective. Our assessments were objective, fair and grounded in our past research and the research of other leading thinkers.

Today the Pembina Institute, the Toxics Watch Society of Alberta and the Fort McMurray Environmental Association formally withdrew from the Cumulative Environmental Management Association.

Today the Government of Alberta announced that it would spend $4 billion to address climate change.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board released a draft policy today that highlights a 40-year history of inadequate tailings management at oil sands mining operations in the boreal forest north of Fort McMurray.

The first ever report to provide an in-depth look at the environmental impacts of upgrading oil sands bitumen in the Edmonton region was released by the Pembina Institute today.

In an effort to prevent irreversible decline of species and biodiversity in Alberta's Boreal Forest, industry can take important steps to offset their environmental impacts.

A comprehensive new report by the Pembina Institute has found that after 41 years of oil sands mining operations in northern Alberta only 0.2% or one square kilometer of disturbed land is certified as reclaimed.