Alberta Sets Economy-Wide Carbon Tax, Caps Emissions for Tar Sands

Notley will take her plan into a meeting of Canadian premiers with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to prepare Canada’s national strategy at the upcoming Paris climate change summit.

Critics, however, warned that the plan would result in dire consequences for the province’s economy.

Alberta will also increase renewable energy while phasing out coal-fired electricity generation.

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.

Along with the tax, the Provincial government’s Climate Leadership Plan includes a cap on emissions from the oilsands, and a phase-out of coal-powered electricity generation.

But environmentalists have criticized the industry’s energy intensive production process, which makes it Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Joining her at that launch were, leaders of major energy companies, environmental groups and First Nations – groups, the CP noted, that have in the past been at each other’s throats over the issue. The opposition leader says Alberta is already a world leader in clean energy and doesn’t need to take lessons from any other jurisdiction. The economy-wide carbon price will be at C$20, or $15, per metric ton by 2017. If the average household faced about $480 in additional costs, then every household in Alberta would receive a cheque for $480 per year to help them absorb those costs.

Jean made the remarks on Monday morning in Edmonton, saying that new tax comes as a complete surprise to Albertans because the NDP made no mention of it during their campaign.

Alberta’s spring budget will likely provide more details on the rebate program, and further overall financial details of the new plan.

“It’s 2015, the measure of climate leadership is no longer setting a target for how much carbon you’ll put in the air but legislating based on science and keeping fossil fuels in the ground”, he continued.

Indeed, Mr. Couillard urged first ministers to focus on “rebranding” Canada, not just as an oil exporter but as one of the leading producers of renewable energy – including Quebec’s own massive hydroelectric power.

The really, really big elephant in Alberta’s room is its lucrative but destructive and emissions- intensive tar sands industry. That gap will be largely filled by projects now being built.

This means hotter summers with more forest fires, melting permafrost and a smaller Arctic ice cover that will force polar bears onto land as they search for food, they said. Mark Jaccard, an energy economist at Simon Fraser University, called it “a prudent mix of sound economics and real-world pragmatism that creates incentives for emissions reductions”.

“From the Alberta government’s perspective, they may be hoping to get some sizeable credit from the worldwide community for tackling methane emissions”, Leach said. “Today’s announcement sets Canadian oil on the path to becoming the most environmentally and economically competitive in the world”. “I’m seeing policies I like”. “We are all now working together to realize the full value provided by the oil and natural gas industry, including jobs, economic benefits and government revenues in a way that addresses the challenges associated with climate change”.