An AER panel had already decided that a hearing was required, but Rob Morgan, head of the Alberta Energy Regulator, quashed the panel’s ruling in a move he acknowledged ‘is without precedent.’Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The head of the Alberta Energy Regulator has, for the first time in the agency’s history, cancelled an application hearing for a new fossil fuel project, in what environmental organizations say sets a worrying precedent.
Rob Morgan’s decision revolves around applications by Summit Coal Inc. for an underground mine near Grande Cache, Alta., roughly 430 kilometres west of Edmonton. An AER panel had already decided that a hearing was required and set the quasi-judicial proceeding for Oct. 21.
But Mr. Morgan quashed the panel’s ruling with his own decision – a move that he acknowledged in his Aug. 21 letter to the company and environmental groups “is without precedent.”
“My decision should not be construed as a means by which parties can circumvent hearing or other AER decisions they disagree with,” he said, adding he was not inclined to exercise his discretion to reconsider decisions of hearing panels, out of respect for the process and the autonomy and independence of those panels.
But he said the “very unique circumstances” surrounding the case made him reconsider the hearing, such as the fact the AER has never conducted a hearing with no parties who are directly adversely affected participating, and that there were far more participants in the hearing who support the application than who oppose it.
Mr. Morgan said a hearing would “impractical,” as there is “a need to deal with this expediently.”
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The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Alberta Wilderness Association said in a joint statement Monday that Mr. Morgan’s unusual move invalidates all the previous decisions made by the AER’s own hearing commissioners and panel.
“Despite claiming otherwise, Rob Morgan has now set a precedent whereby companies unhappy that they must be accountable to the public concerns through processes explicitly outlined under the Responsible Energy Development Act can avoid the process altogether,” they said.
“Morgan’s decision undermines the authority and credibility of the AER, the hearing commissioners, and the panel appointed to review Mine 14, and the entirety of the public hearing process.”
If approved, Summit’s Mine 14 will have a coal production capacity of approximately 3,562 tonnes per day, with a surface footprint of 53.5 hectares. It will operate for roughly nine years, extracting metallurgical coal – used to make steel – for the export market.
In his decision, Mr. Morgan said the AER already monitors and regulates an existing mine permit for the project, but the environmental groups argue that it is more than 10 years old and based on environmental assessment that is even older.
The AER determined on Oct. 3, 2024, that the Summit application should be sent to a hearing.
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Mr. Morgan, a former oil and gas executive, took the reins of the AER in February. His appointment drew the skepticism of many AER critics, who believe that the regulator puts the interests of the energy sector above those of Albertans and the environment.
Despite the fact the AER is an independent body, Mr. Morgan said at the time he would take cues on how to operate the regulator from a report produced by the Premier’s Advisory Council on Alberta’s Energy Future, a five-member panel appointed by Danielle Smith.
Mr. Morgan wrote in his decision on that Summit’s application for an underground mine “is expressly permissible under the Government of Alberta’s recent policy statements on coal industry modernization.”
Kennedy Halvorson, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, said in a statement that Mr. Morgan’s decision tears down any illusion that the AER can function as an independent and balanced regulator accountable to the public.
“It is baffling that one man has unilateral power to cancel a public hearing on the request of a coal company, undermining all the other times the staff at the AER familiar with the project decided otherwise,” Ms. Halvorson said.
Summit did not return a request for comment Monday, but it had been opposed to the hearings.