Canada’s Tar Sands Oil Capital Will Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The leader of Alberta, Canada, announced a plan on Sunday to ease the province’s reliance on the carbon-intensive tar sands oil industry by imposing a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.

The bosses of four of Canada’s biggest oilsands producers stood with NDP Alberta Premier Rachel Notley Monday as she unveiled that province’s sweeping new climate policy, drawing nods and applause from many in the industry. Renewable energy sources will comprise up to 30 percent of Alberta’s electricity production by 2030.

Alberta will phase in carbon pricing, starting at $20 a tonne “economy-wide” in January 2017 and reaching its stated target of $30 a tonne one year later.

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’s new methane reduction strategy is also expected to cut emissions by 45% from 2014 levels by 2025.

So Monday’s meeting is meant to show the worldwide community that he’s at least taken the first steps towards delivering on that commitment and that Canada is now serious about combating climate change after a decade in which the country was widely condemned as an environmental laggard.

Conservative environment critic Ed Fast urged the Liberals to make sure Canada’s economic interests are not hurt by ambition on climate change.

University of Alberta professor of environmental sociology and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lead author Debra Davidson agrees the coal industry and its workers will be hardest hit, but suggested a manageable transition.

Coal plants provide nearly 40% of the province’s installed power capacity, according to Alberta Energy.

Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of the environmental-advocacy group Oil Change global, said that Notley’s announcement signaled a “new day for Alberta”.

“I’m hoping today that we can have a few agreement among the premiers and the prime minister”, Wynne said. The system will also replace the existing specified gas emitters regulations that seek intensity-based emissions reductions with an option for companies that exceed to pay into a technology fund. That levy was at $15 a tonne, and McInerney notes the new system will cover the “entire Alberta economy” rather than just the largest emitters.

Notley’s plan includes imposition of a carbon tax and phasing out coal-fired power plants.

Premier Notley says a majority of Albertans support a limit on the industry.

“Scientists say two-thirds of the world’s remaining fossil fuels should stay in the ground”. Oil-sands wells require steam injections to leach out crude embedded in sand, a process that burns up to 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas to produce a single barrel of oil. The province is vowing the tax will be revenue neutral with the proceeds invested in areas such as clean energy and technology, green infrastructure, and transit.

“This is the day we step up, at long last, to one of the world’s biggest problems”, Notley said at a press conference on Sunday. “That work that is already committed to, or has been done, by the provinces can form the foundation within which we will work going forward”.