The Notley government – along with the involvement of economists, environmentalists, and the oilsands industry – has hashed out their own policy that looks to reduce green-house gas emissions, with specific numbers and procedures.
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“This is the day we stop denying this is an issue”, Premier Rachel Notley told reporters this afternoon.
“Alberta is showing leadership on one of the world’s biggest problems, and doing our part”, said Notley, the daughter of another Alberta NDP leader, MLA Grant Notley (1971-1984).
Alberta’s government also plans to legislate an overall emission limit of 100 megatons for the oil sands, which now generate 70 megatons of carbon a year.
The province plans to have renewable account for one-third of power by 2030, the same year coal stations without carbon capture technology are set for a phase-out. Weeks later, Alberta said it would double its existing carbon tax on large-scale industrial emitters to 30 Canadian dollars ($22.50) per metric ton by 2017. “The province’s 15-year transition, and the commitment to appoint a negotiator, confirms that Alberta does not intend to strand capital”, said TransAlta Chief Financial Officer Donald Tremblay.
The Alberta cabinet also announced a drastic reduction in the amount of carbon emissions it would permit to be emitted from oil sands. But in Alberta, memories of massive policy shifts will go immediately to the 2007 Alberta resource royalty review, a sizeable natural disaster for oil and gas producers.
The planned expansion of crude output has been hampered by a shortage of export pipelines like Keystone XL, which was rejected by the US this month, and by opponents that have focused on the higher carbon emissions of extracting and processing bitumen, a thick fossil fuel mined or steamed out of underground reserves.
“The sun is setting on the tar sands industry”, Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of a Washington-based clean-energy advocacy group, Oil Change worldwide, said in a statement.
But Canada’s leading oil and gas lobby, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said it supported the provincial government’s initiative, noting it could help improve Alberta’s image in markets where oil-sands producers hope to expand access.
· A 100-megatonne cap on carbon emissions from the oil sands, Canada’s fastest-growing source of emissions, once new rules are adopted.
Alberta Premier Notley’s new announcement of a phase out of coal emissions by 2030 is a significant step forward, and builds momentum following the United Kingdom coal phase-out announcement just four days ago. In comparison, Ontario has seen an increase of about 50 per cent over the same period, largely due to an aggressive program to retire coal generation and subsidize rapid renewable energy growth.
The rest of the province will have to stomach higher prices across the board, a government-mandated overhaul of the economy that will pick new winners and losers and is sure to have ugly consequences, a redistribution of income from high carbon users to low carbon users.
The team, that also includes industry and First Nations, is meant to give advice to the province on how to achieve its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.
The new tax would replace an existing price on carbon for large industrial facilities. “We in Alberta want to take a leadership role on climate”.
Canada’s environment ministry says the country’s Carbon dioxide emissions have risen over the past five years and are expected to hit 781 million metric tons a year by 2020 if no reduction measures are taken.
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“The LNG industry has the potential to substantially enhance prosperity for Canada from a natural gas perspective”.
