(Edmonton) Alberta elected officials are warning the federal Liberal government that the province must be consulted before a cap is imposed on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the oil and gas industry.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Opposition Leader Rachel Notley agree that Alberta must be present at the table when it comes to capping GHG emissions.
“I don’t understand why they would make an announcement like this without consulting the province which has the vast majority of Canada’s oil and gas reserves,” said Mr. Kenney.
For her part, the NDP leader in Alberta believes that if the federal Liberals want to impose caps, they should do so for all sectors that emit a large volume of GHGs.
“They need to include all sectors in the discussion,” she said, adding that “the Alberta government must be at the table to defend the best possible deal for Alberta. ”
In his address to the world climate conference on Monday in Glasgow, Scotland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will impose a fixed cap on GHG emissions in the energy sector that is roughly a quarter of of all GHG production in the country.
Mr. Trudeau wants to move forward to fulfill his election promise to cap these emissions. The Liberal promise is to limit emissions to where they are now and then slowly lower the cap every five years until it is production neutral in 2050. He basically repeated that.
The Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, and his colleague from Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, formally requested, on Monday, the assistance of the Consultative Group for Carbon Neutrality to support the government in achieving this objective. .
Jason Kenney assures us that his government is not necessarily against the idea of a cap. There is already a limit of 100 megatonnes of GHG emissions in the oil sands industry, but this limit has never been reached.
“We need to know what the ceiling will be. We are open to discussing the proposed limit of 100 megatonnes, ”he said.
But in Kenney’s opinion, the best strategy for Ottawa would be a $ 32 billion transfer to his province to support projects that capture carbon and store it for burial.
Chris Severson-Baker, of the Pembina Institute, however, adds a caveat to this capture solution which, according to him, would have only a limited impact on the reduction of emissions from the industry.
In a statement, Tim McMillan of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers commented on Trudeau’s statement admitting that such policies can help the industry reduce its total carbon emissions.
According to him, the world will need natural gas and oil, the production of which emits less GHGs. “With good environmental policies, Canada can position us as valued global suppliers,” he said.
Recent studies indicate that Canada is already the state that subsidizes the oil and gas industry the most in the G20. The federal Liberals and federal agencies have promised to curb these subsidies.