Oil sands companies demonstrate leadership on climate change

“Alberta making a move like that is going to tell the world that we are really doing a lot in Canada”. It also means that over 85 percent of the Canadian population will live in a jurisdiction that prices carbon, showing Canadian leadership to North America and the world.

On that score the Alberta approach could present a challenge to the B.C. Liberals, who’ve already been fending off calls for them to raise the carbon tax and divert some of the cash flow to transit and other green measures.

He adds, “When you’re talking about spending it on general government infrastructure, that is not revenue neutral”.

“We are studying the announcements from the Alberta government to assess their impact on our existing operations and possible future projects in Alberta”, Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser said in an email Monday.

“We’re anxious that that $3 billion will turn into a slush fund”.

Yesterday, the Alberta government released a plan with three main areas of focus: phasing out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030; implementing the carbon tax in two phases; and capping oilsands emissions at 100 megatonnes.

“We have pledged that we will ensure that this orderly transition is fair for workers, fair for communities, fair for consumers, (and) fair for the companies”, Phillips told reporters.

For most Albertans, the price will be felt at the pump and when opening home electricity bills.

The new environmental fees amount to a 54% increase in the Alberta gasoline tax, now C$0.13/liter (US$0.37/US gallon), to C$0.20/liter (US$0.57/U.S. gallon) and an entirely new levy on previously untaxed natural gas consumption.

The government has promised rebates to about 60 per cent of Albertans, those in the middle to lower-income bracket.

In an interview Tuesday, Redford said she is “absolutely done” with politics, but wants to contribute as a developer of policy that builds on the climate change plan put forward by Canada this week and the national energy strategy she first proposed in 2012 that, after much fine-tuning, was eventually embraced by Canadian premiers last summer.

But the significant meeting will be after the climate conference when Trudeau sits down with the premiers to develop Canada’s climate change policy. She has guaranteed that the many global leaders and investors assembled in Paris next week will be newly receptive to Alberta – and Canada’s – interests.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Trudeau “will deliver a national statement highlighting Canada’s commitment to working with worldwide partners to reduce carbon emissions and grow a climate-resilient global economy”.

“We fully anticipate oil sands growth beyond 2020, but the licence to do so is now tied to lower-emission barrels”, Royal Bank of Canada analyst Greg Pardy said Monday in a note to clients.

When it comes to climate change, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sees his job as being the headwaiter to the provinces.

But as remarkable as it was for the likes of both oilpatch billionaire Murray Edwards, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.’s chairman, and former USA vice president Al Gore, an outspoken advocate for tougher climate action, to back the plan, not everyone is singing its praises.

“Judging by the unity we achieved in Alberta this week on one of the toughest problems we face in the province … The Alberta Party is neither of those things and I don’t think Albertans in the broad sense are either of this things”, said the Calgary-Elbow MLA.