Suncor Energy has a long history of polluting the community and violating the laws and regulations designed to protect people who work at the facility and who live nearby. This dark history includes innumerable malfunctions, accidents, and discharges of chemicals into the air and water.
In the past, local leaders ignored, protected, or covered for Suncor because of the economic and political power wielded by Colorado’s only oil refinery. Now, local leaders are fed up. Some point out the endless cycle of “problem, apology, and repeat.” Even the Commerce City mayor said the community’s relationship with Suncor is like a domestic violence situation, where one spouse continues to abuse the other, even after multiple promises to do better.
As Suncor continues to cough pollution into our air and secrete chemicals into our water, it is fair and justified (perhaps absolutely necessary) to reassess our relationship with Colorado’s only oil refinery which is located in the middle of the metropolitan area.
Is it time to place the aging and ailing Suncor refinery on hospice where efforts can focus on making its demise as painless and smooth as possible? Or should communities continue to desperately hold on to the possibility that Suncor can be rehabilitated to become a good neighbor, employer, and business?
Hospice
Hospice is a holistic process for incurable entities of short anticipated life expectancy. The goal of hospice is to focus on managing symptoms to minimize pain and maximize quality of life as the entity passes on.
Placing Suncor on hospice would require a variety of stakeholders to collaborate for a smooth transition for employees, businesses, and communities to adapt to a life without Suncor in the Denver metro area. The demise of the refinery would be no small task. It would require significant investments in labor, technology, and other assets to remediate decades of pollution, neglect, and mismanagement. In addition, a successful hospice plan must include managing pain associated with finding alternative sources of asphalt and jet fuel.
There is no question that Suncor’s departure would be a herculean effort, but Colorado communities have a track record of overcoming extremely difficult environmental challenges. Remediation of the Suncor facility for other cleaner and compatible uses could be among the most impactful environmental achievements of this next century, rising to the level of historic significance as Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.
In determining whether hospice is the correct course of action, we need to ask ourselves whether our collective dependence on a centralized, local source of asphalt and jet fuel (and addiction to cheap gas) is worth the impact Suncor has on the climate, local communities, and public health? If we cannot live without Suncor, then we need to consider the next alternative.
Rehab
Rehabilitation is a set of interventions designed to optimize functionality and reduce disability, ailment, or dysfunction. In the medical context, rehabilitation often includes painful exercises to stretch and strengthen functions of movement and mobility. In the context of domestic violence, rehabilitation can require the abuser to take responsibility for unacceptable behavior and reflect on how the abuser can prevent repeating such unacceptable behavior.
Suncor’s rehabilitation must require the Canadian corporation to acknowledge its impact on Colorado communities. It must take responsibility for its contributions of air and water pollution. This means no more purely symbolic settlements with regulators that relieve Suncor from admitting any fault.
And while Suncor is not the only local industrial polluter, a successful rehabilitation should result in Suncor becoming an anchor institution that leads by example to promote transparency and accountability for all industrial and commercial businesses. Can a rehabilitated Suncor be part of the solution, rather than a major contributor to the problem?
Suncor’s rehabilitation must require it to take responsibility for injuries suffered by employees and immediately end its repeated habit of blaming its employees for malfunctions, accidents, and discharges of chemicals into the air and water. These employees are members of this community, who care about their neighbors and co-workers. But many of these employees have quietly shared that they feel understaffed, mismanaged, and unsupported.
Also, Suncor has recently announced an expected reduction in its workforce of around 1,500 employees. On the contrary, a successful rehabilitation must include adequately investing in the local workforce and avoiding costly and dangerous reductions in jobs that are needed to protect employees and the community.
Finally, Suncor’s rehabilitation must include exercising corporate responsibility. Much of Suncor’s current behavior portrays greed at its worst. Suncor disclosures reveal a pattern of boasting about profits and dividends while glossing over problems and incidents in places like Commerce City.
Suncor executives need to be more transparent and accountable. Show they care. Perhaps Suncor’s CEO Rich Kruger, CFO Kris Smith, and the rest of the executive team should visit Commerce City and Denver to meet the residents they are poisoning, the employees they are blaming, and the elected officials they are ignoring. Without some display of leadership and empathy to the local community, do they really deserve another chance at rehabilitation?
Steve O’Dorisio writes this as a resident of Commerce City, but he is chair of the Adams County Board of County Commissioners and is the current president of Colorado Counties, Inc.
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