The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that academics at the University of Calgary are calling for a public review of the Alberta Energy Regulator, saying it is too close to industry and secretive. A Canadian Press dispatch to the Post reports that three authors, in a peer-reviewed report issued by the university's School For Public Policy, examine what they call a "massive policy failure" in dealing with the large and growing environmental liability left by the province's oil and gas industry. They use decades of documents from registries and access to information requests to accuse the regulator of consistently favouring industry over public interest. Co-author and resource law professor Martin Olszynsk says: "There needs to be an inquiry of some kind. Albertans don't have the information they need." Regulator spokesman Teresa Broughton says recent programs funded by industry and government have improved spending on reclamation. She adds, "Over $1-billion was spent on closure activities in 2022." Alberta has about 230,000 drilled wells that need to be abandoned and reclaimed. Another 90,000 have been abandoned but not reclaimed. That liability is estimated to be at least $60-billion.