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By rdnewsNOW staff

Managing Emissions

Federal methane emissions targets: Joint statement

Dec 4, 2023 | 4:35 PM

Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz issued the following statement on the federal government’s proposed methane emissions regulations:

“The federal government has unilaterally established new methane emissions rules and targets to help win international headlines. Instead of building on Alberta’s award-winning approach, Ottawa wants to replace it with costly, dangerous and unconstitutional new federal regulations that won’t benefit anyone beyond Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault’s post-office career.

“Managing emissions from Alberta’s oil and gas industry is our constitutional right and responsibility, not Ottawa’s, and we are getting the job done. Using a province-led approach, Alberta has already reduced methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by 45 per cent – hitting our target three years early – and we’re just getting started.

“Meanwhile, not only is it illegal for Ottawa to attempt to regulate our industries in this manner, Ottawa also hasn’t even hit one of its past arbitrary and unscientific emissions targets largely because it has little to no credible expertise regulating the natural resource, agricultural and other industry sectors in this space.

“Ottawa could have helped us keep reducing emissions with joint incentive programs in line with Alberta’s Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan. It could have listened to the Supreme Court’s declaration that the Impact Assessment Act was unconstitutional and abandoned this kind of arrogant and ineffective scheme. Instead, these new regulations threaten our successful province-led approach and impede good work that’s already underway.

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“Once again, the federal government is setting unrealistic targets and timelines. Infrastructure can only be updated as quickly as technology allows. For example, Alberta will not accept nor impose a total ban on flaring at this time, as it is a critical health and safety practice during production. Any regulation that completely prohibits this is putting lives at risk. A total ban would also be costly, resulting in shut-ins and loss of production.

“This approach will also cost tens of billions in infrastructure upgrades, yet Ottawa has provided virtually no financial support to do so. Thousands of Albertans could be put out of work in the coming years due to these costly regulations. A federal government willing to invest $37.7 billion into just three battery plants in Ontario and Quebec cannot credibly refuse to provide tax credits and financial incentives for producers in Alberta and Saskatchewan to assist with achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

“For years, Alberta, not Ottawa, has done the hard work and achieved results. We strongly support reducing methane emissions and have invested tens of millions into developing these technologies. Minister Guilbeault must work with us, and not against us, to keep cutting methane emissions and charting a course for carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Given the unconstitutional nature of this latest federal intrusion into our provincial jurisdiction, our government will use every tool at our disposal to ensure these absurd federal regulations are never implemented in our province.”

Kathleen Ganley, Alberta NDP Energy & Climate Critic for Oil & Gas, Natural Gas, Minerals & Hydrogen, issued the following statement on the federal methane announcement and UCP response:

“This morning, the federal government released a methane emissions reduction target that is exactly the same as the one released by the UCP earlier this year.

“Naturally, the UCP have attacked it because Premier Danielle Smith is full of hot air. She has no plan to secure our economic future and made bogus claims around safety and timing that are not reflected in the regulations released today.

“Smith and the UCP have been doing a victory lap over the 45 per cent methane reduction target that was set and achieved by Alberta NDP policy. Our leadership in this area made our province a world leader in methane-reduction technology.

“This UCP Government has the same targets as those released by the federal government but no plan to achieve them. If they had made one, they could have sought an equivalency agreement and continued on with a made-in-Alberta strategy, but they aren’t interested in our economic future, only in picking fights for political gain.

“For the record, reducing methane emissions is good for our economic future, good for the environment, for creating jobs and driving investment.

“We remain concerned about the federal government’s broader oilsands emissions cap policy coming later this week and hope the concerns we outlined to them in writing more than a year ago have been heard and the policy has been adjusted accordingly.

“The Alberta NDP will continue working to ensure our province is leading in all forms of energy development while taking real action to combat climate change.”

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