In looking ahead to the next iteration of Alberta’s climate change strategy – and the regulations that will support it – one would hope the province’s future emissions-reduction targets and regulations are better aligned.
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Environmental groups, including the Pembina Institute, Forest Ethics and Environmental Defence Canada, also endorsed the plan.
Alberta’s NDP government is facing accusations the broad guidelines for its multibillion-dollar proposed carbon tax will change it from a climate-fighting levy into an all-purpose slush fund. In September, Notley also told the Guardian that the province would look to diversify its energy portfolio in the coming years, steering away from fossil fuels and towards more renewable energy sources.
A carbon tax of CA$20 a tonne will take effect from 2017, rising to $30 in 2018. With emissions now standing at approximately 70 Mt and construction underway on additional capacity approaching 30 Mt, the cap effectively freezes oil sands expansion unless and until the sector can bring down its emissions.
Notley promised that all money raised through the tax would be reinvested in green initiatives in the province, including clean technology research, public transportation, and energy efficiency programs.
“Coal power in Alberta puts almost as much carbon into the air as all oilsands operations, so the impact of phasing out these massively polluting power plants and shifting to zero-emission power sources is a landmark step that will cut emissions and save lives”.
“Certainly, it’s sweeping”, says Thomas McInerney, co-head of climate change and emissions trading at Bennett Jones LLP in Calgary, of the new regulations.
The $3 billion a year Alberta expects to collect by 2018 goes to consumer rebates for low and middle income households, transition payments to workers and communities and “to provide incremental fiscal capacity for other government priorities including infrastructure”, the Alberta government report says.
Notley credited the recent rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil sands petroleum from Alberta to the United States’s Gulf Coast, with her government’s drive to move forward on climate.
Energy policy is largely left to the provinces and some have already outlined new plans. “Alberta’s comprehensive energy strategy marks a new era of Canadian leadership on climate change”, said Bruce. “So let us – industry and governments – build on what’s in place to ensure Canada can become a larger and leading supplier of responsibly produced energy to the world”.
“The sun is setting on the tar sands industry”, Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of a Washington-based clean-energy advocacy group, Oil Change International, said in a statement.
Jean also said it’s unclear who will be responsible for the costs of shutting down the province’s coal generation projects.
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The tax on emissions, to begin in 2017, will affect everything from the price of gas at the pump to home heating and power bills.
