The new chief executive officer of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) lobbied the agency on behalf of his former oil and gas company as recently as April of last year, and only appears to have resigned from another regulator’s industry advisory committee after The Energy Mix asked about a possible conflict of interest last week.
Rob Morgan, who started in his new role with the regulator on Feb. 18, is the former president and CEO of Strathcona Resources Ltd.—a company with many dozens of abandoned wells that are subject to AER regulation.
Morgan was also previously on the board of directors of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (EPAC), a group that lobbies both federal and provincial levels of government. AER spokesperson Renato Gandia confirmed in an email to The Energy Mix that Morgan left his EPAC role at the end of October.
Indigenous and environmental groups say his appointment “shatters any hope for a fair and effective oversight of the industry.”
“Placing a former oil executive in charge of regulating the oil and gas industry is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse—an illusion of oversight designed to pacify the public while industry continues unchecked,” Gerry Cheezie, a board member with Keepers of the Water and former chief of the Smith’s Landing First Nation, said in a news release.
Keepers of the Water is a coalition of Indigenous groups working with environmental groups on water rights. The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) and Environmental Defence Canada joined them in calling for “true environmental oversight that protects water, land, and communities.”
Morgan was still listed as a Strathcona representative on a fossil industry advisory committee for the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) after he began his new role with the AER.
Late last week, after The Mix asked the AER who he was representing on that committee, Gandia said Morgan was “in the process of resigning.” In the original announcement, he was described as a current member of the committee, but that information has since been removed.
In an email, the media spokesperson for the securities commission said: “After taking time to analyze the AER’s policies, Mr. Morgan resigned on February 21, 2025.”
The AER’s Conflict of Interest policy states [pdf] employees are “strongly advised to avoid” even a “perceived conflict of interest.” But Morgan’s appointment is in keeping with the AER’s “long tradition” of being “captured by industry,” Drew Yewchuk, PhD student at the University of British Columbia’s Allard School of Law, told The Mix.
Yewchuk was one of three authors of a scathing report released in late 2023 on mounting cleanup costs for Alberta’s inactive oil and gas wells, calling them an “immense environmental and financial crisis” that requires a public inquiry.
Morgan is taking the helm of the AER as the regulator continues to face a wave of criticism for its lack of oversight. An analysis released last month by Alberta ecologist Kevin P. Timoney found that 91% of oil sands tailing spills that AER said were cleaned up over the last decade had not been inspected by the regulator, CBC News reported.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has filed a lawsuit against the AER for “failure to regulate Kearl toxic tailings spills.” Imperial Oil is appearing in court in Fort McMurray this week, facing nine charges related to the wastewater release.
The AER’s intended role is to ensure safe and environmentally responsible energy development, but “the evidence points more and more to it failing to meet that mandate,” AWA conservation specialist Phillip Meintzer told The Mix.
AER board chair Duncan Au said in a news release that Morgan brings “a strong perspective on the current issues facing both the oil and gas industry and the regulator.” The Narwhal reported that Morgan’s former company has more than 500 inactive wells, 31% of which haven’t been capped and sealed, or reclaimed.
“It’s concerning because you have someone coming directly from a company with these inactive wells into leading the regulator who’s responsible for overseeing the reclamation of those wells,” Meintzer said.
Morgan told the Globe and Mail he “doesn’t yet have specific plans for how to deal with Alberta’s growing oil and gas liabilities or rebuilding fraught relationships with some Indigenous communities,” but will speak to stakeholders to determine next steps.
Morgan took Strathcona public, and collected millions in funding for the company from both levels of government, in 2023. The total included about C$23 million from the federal government for carbon capture and storage, among other projects. It also received $12 million from the province through Emissions Reduction Alberta. Financial reports on 2024 funding are not yet posted on the federal government website.
Under the provincial Conflict of Interest Act, Morgan is required to disclose [pdf] information to Alberta’s Ethics Commissioner about any conflicts of interest within 60 days of starting his new position. Gandia said Morgan “is actively ensuring alignment with our conflict-of-interest policy.”
But Cheezie told The Mix that “this is an ongoing thing with the Alberta government.”
“They abuse their authority, doing whatever they want, and in this case, whatever the oil and gas industry wants, and we don’t benefit,” he said. “When it’s all said and done, the companies are going to leave, and our grandchildren should not have to worry about the quality and the quantity of the water, and the air they breathe.”
