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Maybe you'd fight too
Many Albertans fear the name of Wiebo Ludwig, who is to be released from prison today. But many can also identify with his cause, says ANDREW NIKIFORUK

By ANDREW NIKIFORUK Wednesday, November 14, 2001 – Print Edition, Page A25

Wiebo Ludwig, the fiery Dutch-born cleric who declared war on Alberta's $26-billion oil and gas industry, will get out of jail today. Just about every Albertan knows his name and a great many people actively fear it. Mr. Ludwig, after all, can be as self-serving, rude and offensive as any Old Testament prophet or oil executive. After serving 18 months of a 28-month sentence for oil patch vandalism, the man will not likely retire quietly but continue, as it says in Ephesians, to expose "the unfruitful works of darkness."

Few Albertans would approve of a terror-ridden sabotage campaign with its attendant bullets, bombs and death threats, which cost industry and government more than $10-million (Mr. Ludwig played a part in the campaign but certainly wasn't responsible for everything that happened).

Nor would they approve of what Mr. Ludwig called its "collateral damage" -- the tragic shooting of a 16-year-old girl on his property. But a huge number of rural Albertans strongly identify with his cause.

If you subtract Mr. Ludwig's infuriating character from the picture, his cause isn't all that complicated to understand.

Imagine you live in a country where the government owns almost everything under your feet: the rocks, the gas, the oil -- you name it. This state in turn makes billions by selling these mineral rights to a 1,000 different companies. Over time, these companies industrialize the landscape with a million kilometres of seismic lines, 300,000 kilometres of pipelines, hundreds of gas plants and tens of thousands of wells -- and all in a pretty ad hoc fashion. Even parks must sport wells and pipelines. But, hey, its all in the public interest.

Now imagine you are a landowner in this Soviet-style state. A company comes along and proposes to put a sour-gas well in front of your dining room. Someone might explain that the good people of California need to stay cool in the summer and the good people of Ontario need to stay warm in the winter. You're offered $25,000 for the inconvenience and annual rent of $5,000 as "hush money."

Generally speaking, no one will tell you that sour gas is a cyanide-like poison. Or that it's so toxic that the Canadian government even used it in its secret chemical-warfare program during the Second World War. Or that one gas well might to lead to another four; or a pipeline. Or ceaseless traffic, access roads and a fax machine in your kitchen so the gas company can contact you night and day in case there is an emergency.

Now imagine you have an objection to this intrusion. You are given a public hearing before a state board that receives most of its funding from the oil and gas industry.

The board has a funny technocratic name: the Energy and Utility Board. It claims to operate in the public interest, which means its job is to generate more revenue for the state. It will often patiently listen to objections and then declare that "there is a need" for the well. The landowner is damned. Imagine four decades of damning decisions.

Now something goes wrong with the nice well in your backyard and the pipeline
fragmenting your crop land and the shiny sour-gas plant upwind of your property. There is a leak; an upset; a 30-foot high burning flame that sounds like a jet airplane and rattles your house.

Your family and your livestock then breathe hydrocarbons that the medical literature has identified as brain-melters, lung-wasters and sex-changers. Your cattle die and your children pass out cold. Someone develops facial paralysis, multiple sclerosis or other neurological symptoms.

Well, that's just too bad because industry does most of the monitoring and the self-policing in Alberta. You might wait months for redress -- even years. According to the state, these emissions are harmless; it's just an odour problem; it's in the public interest for rural Albertans to smell these odours. (For years the EUB had only one mobile air monitor.)
Now imagine you are a self-righteous Christian fundamentalist who loves his family. Your wife and daughters-in-law miscarry after exposure to hydrocarbons that are well-known womb-emptiers. You civilly and legally challenge the system and are told to go to hell in the public interest. And then a war begins that exposes the vanity and arrogance of all sides and terrorizes an entire community. And that's the Ludwig saga in a nutshell.
Not much has changed in Alberta since this conflict made international headlines. Tensions remain so high in the countryside that many pipelines and wells now have 24-hour guards. Industry even reports people to the RCMP for merely taking pictures of flaring wells.

In fact, Alberta has the highest rate of "eco-terrorism" of any jurisdiction on the continent and some of the nation's highest rates of respiratory and neurological diseases.
Every week a family is exposed to toxic poisons or displaced by energy development in the public interest. And each week, industry and government mostly refuse to compensate those people harmed -- or even recognize the legitimacy of their claims. As a result, groups of landowners routinely contest sour-gas developments and have launched more than 30 toxic torts against industry.

The solutions to these Latin-American style land conflicts aren't all that onerous. Rural Albertans deserve a separate agency that upholds their rights and that has the power to duly compensate them for damages. The state needs to impose density controls on sour-gas development in areas of high population. That means the government must learn to say no to industry. Tough regulations on air pollution and flaring need to be introduced and enforced. Oil executives should be fined for bad practices that affect the property rights of down-winders. Last but not least the EUB needs a dozen environmental forensic teams to investigate air pollution and water contamination in a timely fashion.

And if the government really wanted to be proactive, it would also appoint a council of three retired judges to resolve the shooting of Karman Willis and investigate the legitimacy of Wiebo Ludwig's complaints.

Neither Alberta nor the oil patch needs any more Ludwigs. But civility won't likely return to the countryside without civil government.

Andrew Nikiforuk is a Calgary reporter and author of Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil.
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Copyright © 2001 Globe Interactive, a division of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.