Renewables & Restoration

"Renewables & Restoration" with Markham Hislop of Energi.Media at the Montgomery Community Association on Friday, April 24 from 6 to 8 pm.

The link below previews “Renewables and Restoration,” an April 24 evening event in Calgary featuring a live, podcast-style conversation between Energi.Media journalist Markham Hislop and oil-and-gas geophysicist Jenny Yeremiy of The Gravity Well, held at the Montgomery Community Association from 6:00–8:00 p.m. as a fundraiser for Jenny’s work.

Itinerary:

• 6:00 pm-Doors Open
• 6:30 pm-Speaker Introductions & Insights
• 7:00 pm-Dual Podcast Discussion
• 7:30 pm-Audience Q&A

Drawing on both Jenny's and Markham's 25+ years working in or reporting on the Western Canadian oil and gas industry. The discussion will explore how intensive and poorly tracked industrial water use, including fracking withdrawals and large-scale injection, is depleting Alberta’s water table and contributing to broader “water bankruptcy” amid shrinking glaciers, reduced snowpack, and drought impacts on vegetation and agriculture.

The event will also examine the tight linkage between energy and water—given that most energy use involves water movement—and argue for a shift toward water restoration as a core policy and industry priority.

On the energy side, Markham will challenge Alberta’s dominant narrative of rapidly expanding LNG exports and doubling oil production, presenting evidence that Asian oil and gas demand is peaking or slowing due to electrification, petrochemical trends, and the region’s strategic move toward electricity-based energy security, especially in response to recent geopolitical shocks and war-related supply disruptions.

The conversation will highlight how massive new global LNG capacity, falling prices, and Canada’s high-cost position undermine the case for new pipelines and LNG plants, calling instead for a risk-based approach that recognizes shifting Asian markets and the likelihood of overbuilt, stranded infrastructure. A further focus will be Alberta’s vast, under-addressed environmental liabilities—estimated at $260 billion—including inactive wells, contamination plumes, and the industry’s reluctance to fund remediation, alongside insider accounts of professional silencing, career repercussions for raising liability concerns, and even alleged strategies to use political separation to evade cleanup obligations.

Structured as short opening presentations followed by a recorded dialogue and audience Q&A, the event aims to equip attendees—industry professionals and the public alike—with a clearer understanding of how misjudged global demand, mounting liabilities, and unsustainable water use intersect, and why collective pushback and new perspectives are urgently needed in Alberta’s energy conversation.