For your daily Greenwash dose... Suncor sympathetic over ducks... and not a hint of sympathy for the loss of other human lives.
--M
Suncor CEO defends record on environment
Rick George sympathizes over duck loss
Dan Healing, with a file from Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008
A speech about the business outlook for Alberta's oilsands industry Friday morning turned into a defence of its environmental record for Suncor Energy Inc. CEO Rick George.
Following his remarks to a business-friendly crowd at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, George faced five questions -- four of them about the environment and two of those posed by members of environmental organizations.
In the wake of the deaths of 500 ducks in a tailings pond at Syncrude Canada two weeks ago, George said the industry has an obligation to address issues such as the environmental and energy costs of delivering crude oil from the tar-like oilsands.
"This industry has not done a terrific job of communicating," he said in response to a question from the audience, adding companies must be careful not to be "defensive" about their practices.
In a later interview, George said he doesn't know of any birds that have died at Suncor, which has been in operation for more than 40 years, but he sympathizes with Syncrude.
"We know that Syncrude management and employees feel very bad about this very tragic incident and we're all thinking of them because I know they took this very hard," said George.
He refused to second-guess how his oilsands rival handled the situation, nor would he say what Suncor would do in a similar situation.
"You can always criticize anything anyone else does. It's always easy, but it's a lot more difficult on the ground so they've got my complete sympathy," he said. "It looked to me like they responded fairly well."
In the wake of the deaths of the oil-coated birds in a settling pond at Syncrude's Aurora mine north of Fort McMurray, the company was accused of a coverup and there were calls for an independent public inquiry.
Syncrude, which apologized, said it hadn't set up noisemakers to scare away migrating fowl at the pond because of late winter-like storms.
George was not the only oilsands leader talking up the industry this week.
After its annual general meeting Thursday, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. president Steve Laut told reporters protecting wildlife at the Horizon oilsands plant, which is to start in the third quarter, isn't easy.
"Ducks aren't as dumb as people think. You have the cannons and the scarecrows, but after a while they get used to them," he said.
"One of the things that has come up is to use radar that senses the ducks coming in, and then the cannons fire. You can also use things like predator calls.
"In the summer there's lots of lakes, lots of fresh water so it's not like the tailings ponds are the first place where they want to land."
George and Laut both said their companies are investigating new technology to dry out the tailings produced in the upgrading process and reduce the size of the ponds.
George touted Suncor's environmental record, citing examples such as reducing its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 50 per cent per barrel since 1990, working with industry partners on a project to capture 20 megatonnes per year of carbon dioxide, its stake in four wind-power projects, its ownership of Canada's largest ethanol production facility and reduction of overall water use by 40 per cent over the past five years at its Fort McMurray operations.
Dave Poulton, executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, asked George at the meeting if some oilsands projects should be delayed in view of environmental and social pressures.
"I'm a free-market kind of guy, so I would say the market will sort this out, and it already has. You see a number of projects that have been delayed," said the Suncor CEO, adding co-operation among companies has reduced a labour crunch in the area.
Poulton said later that George's answer was what he expected, adding it's really the government's job to regulate oilsands projects.
Capital investment in the oilsands is expected to reach $20 billion this year, matching the level of spending on all other manufacturing in Canada, George noted.
Suncor recently reported 23 per cent higher first-quarter profits of $708 million, thanks to high oil prices.
Earlier this year, it gave the green light to its $20.6-billion Voyageur expansion, which will lift production past 550,000 barrels per day by 2012.
dhealing@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2008
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=e...
