The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Feb. 6, edition that Canada's battered oil patch could face another financial hit after the Supreme Court, in what is known as the Redwater case, ranked environmental cleanup above secured creditors' claims in bankruptcy cases. The Globe's Jeffrey Jones writes that the court ruled that the "polluter pays" principle is paramount even when oil companies are insolvent. Moody's Investors Service analyst Paresh Chari said loan recovery in a bankruptcy has been reduced. He said, "This could potentially reduce the amount of borrowings a bank could give to oil and gas companies." Most affected will be those with weaker credit ratings and their financial positions will suffer as a result of smaller borrowing capacity, he said. The ruling is a victory for the Alberta Energy Regulator as it seeks to enforce cleanups to prevent the inventory of spent producing sites from ballooning more. Still, the new legal reality will play into redeterminations of oil patch borrowing bases, which take place in the spring and autumn. Redeterminations are essentially a lender's evaluation of companies' reserves and their financial ability to extract and sell them profitably.