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How hard does BC's Oil and Gas Commission really sweat industry violators?

At The Hook, Chris Wood points out the BC Oil and Gas Commission's rather poor record of holding oil and gas industry violators to account:

The Commission's annual report claims that the 6,474 inspections it conducted in 2010 found less than 0.3 per cent of industry operators (fewer than 20 sites) were failing to abide by the rules.

What it doesn't say (but the Auditor General did), is that this failure rate includes only outfits that received a grace period to get into line with the rules, and then failed a second inspection.
 
The Commission doesn't release the real failure rate. But it does disclose how much the industry has paid in fines for violations over the years: a grand total of $84,000 in all since 2007 (according to figures provided by the Commission).

After you're done reading that, check out Chris Woods' comprehensive look at the fracking issue for The Walrus. It's well worth reading.

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Victoria Politics Examiner

Walker Morrow is a Vancouver Island-based writer and blogger who has created, or worked on, a number of blogging and online media projects. He can...

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