Alberta imposes carbon tax, oil sands emissions cap

Andrew Topf | November 22, 2015 | 3:07 pm Energy Canada 

The Alberta government has done what it promised to do during its election campaign earlier this year, imposing measures to combat climate change including a carbon tax aimed at individual Albertans, phasing out coal-powered power plants and placing a cap on emissions from the oilsands.

Premier Rachel Notley made the announcement on Sunday afternoon, a day before Canadian premiers meet in Ottawa, the capital, to discuss climate change and a few days before the UN climate change conference in Paris.

Addressing environment and energy groups at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton, Notley said “This is the day that we set a better course for our economic future. This is the day that we start to mobilize capital and resources to create green jobs, green energy, green infrastructure and a strong, environmentally responsible, sustainable and visionary Alberta energy industry with a great future … This is the day we stop denying there is an issue, and this is the day we do our part.”

Details of the Climate Leadership Plan are laid out in a government press release. Under the plan:

  • Alberta will phase out all pollution created by burning coal and transition to more renewable energy and natural gas generation by 2030.
  • Three principles will shape the coal phase-out: maintaining reliability; providing reasonable stability in prices to consumers and business; and, ensuring that capital is not unnecessarily stranded.
  • Two-thirds of coal-generated electricity will be replaced by renewables – primarily wind power – while natural gas generation will continue to provide firm base load reliability.
  • Renewable energy sources will comprise up to 30 per cent of Alberta’s electricity production by 2030.
  • A price on carbon provides an incentive for everyone to reduce greenhouse gas pollution that causes climate change.
  • Alberta will phase in this pricing in two steps.
    • $20/tonne economy-wide in January 2017
    • $30/tonne economy-wide in January 2018
  • An overall oil sands emission limit of 100 megatonnes will be set, with provisions for new upgrading and co-generation. (The oilsands currently emit 70 megatonnes per year)
  • In collaboration with industry, environmental organizations, and affected First Nations, Alberta will implement a methane reduction strategy to reduce emissions by 45% from 2014 levels by 2025.

According to the Alberta government, all of the proceeds from carbon pricing will be reinvested in Alberta, with a portion plowed into measures to reduce pollution, including clean energy research and technology, public transit and programs to help Albertans reduce their energy use. The carbon tax and associated carbon pricing initiatives are expected to bring in around $3 billion.

The oil and gas industry in Alberta has warned that any additional costs will be disastrous for a sector already under severe pressure due to low oil prices. The neighbouring province of British Columbia passed a carbon tax in 2008. The tax covers most types of fuel use and carbon emissions, and has been deemed a success for not only reducing reducing fuel use but lowering personal income taxes, since the carbon tax is revenue neutral by law.

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9 Comments

  • Al

    just a scan for the elite to get even richer off of. wake up people

  • Art Easian

    The oil sands emit 4% of Canada’s 2% of the global 2% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide annually. So when I multiply I get 0.04 x 0.02 x 0.02 = 0.000016 x 400 ppm = 6.4 parts per billion. That is really insignificant. The carbon tax is a reflection of political aimlessness of both the NDP and the Liberals. They intend to destroy the means of production.

    There is plenty of oil and gas in the world and to hobble Canada’s competitiveness is insane. Moreover, carbon dioxide is the core of the food chain of the planet and not a poison. The industry has to put itself into a deep coma in Canada and move elsewhere.

    Remember what happened when BC elected NDP Dave Barrett?

  • Art Easian

    I should point out that the file photo attached to the article is just another alarmist propaganda photograph. That is not carbon dioxide; it is a condensation trail of water vapour on a cold Alberta day. Yours brings the total of propaganda photographs I have saved on my hard-drive to 77.

    Please publish a retraction for the misleading picture.

  • babennett

    At least five major ice ages have occurred throughout Earth’s history: the earliest was over 2 billion years ago, and the most recent one began approximately 3 million years ago and continues today (yes, we live in an ice age!).The Earth is either going into an Ice Age or coming out of an Ice Age it is a Natural process and has been going on long before that Idiot Al Gore fell into the Chicken Little Hole and starting screaming the Sky was falling. Stopping Pollution is fine and helps everybody but no amount of meetings, no amount of Carbon Taxes, is going to stop Global warming. It could possibly be slowed down but these self appointed climate control freaks have absolutly no power what so ever to effect any change no matter how much they profess to be able to save the world.

  • Nordbird

    Carbon dioxide at 400 ppm is a trace gas at 0.04% of dry air. Add up to 5% water vapor in the atmosphere, and you can say that water is about 100 times more prevalent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. If the temperature rises, so does the evaporation rate, cloud formation, cooling, and dissolution of carbon dioxide in water vapor. In short, it is hard to fool Mother Nature, who has been around for far longer than us, and likely laughs at our puny attempts to control the climate, when a single solar flare releases more energy than humans could ever produce in a million years.

  • 2ndOrion

    Condensed water clouds in the sky, day to night, produce the greatest Cooling (day) or Heating (night) effects by either blocking it from coming in or letting heat in or blocking it from leaving -not Carbon Dioxide. But what person that is called a scientist which is supposed to consider all the facts before coming to a conclusion has even considered day to night cloud cover in their calculations? Apparently -None! Therefore -all these people are not really true scientists -but fake and false scientists who are called Scientists. They give Real Scientists a very bad name.
    Carbon Taxes may be a windfall for governments, but everybody ends up paying for them. Natural gas is a carbon based fuel. To be equal in taxes, it should be taxed also. It produces Carbon Dioxide when burned.
    If all energy production were to come from renewables someday, Oil, and Coal production would still need to be done -to make all the products needed for everybody some of which include lubricants -which no machinery can do without.
    Therefore to tax Coal Production or Oil Production on the basis of contained Carbon is just for the Hidden tax it puts on everyone, not to prevent any Global Warming.
    Then too, Carbon is the thing that holds the greatest energy storage and easiest to handle ability of all other materials. Consider, in storing renewable energy, one can produce Hydrogen -which is hard to store and use it to reduce carbon dioxide to Carbon Monoxide and make Formic acid out of it, then use that with more Hydrogen to make Hydrocarbons, Then reform that back into Natural Gas and then reform that with more hydrogen back into gasoline and oil which is easy to store -whereas the Hydrogen is not.
    Where are the True Scientists -Rather than the Snake Oil ones?

  • patentbs

    It’s politics as per usual for the pinkos. They have a trail of disaster behind them wherever they have been. Less production and more taxes, then hire your buddies to help get rid of the money.
    One of the last bastions of growth will go down quickly with this kind of actions.
    Oh well – maybe I can get a job in Newfoundland!

  • EdBCN

    To all the folks dismissing the problem of climate change here, I have this to say:

    Yes, climate scientists have considered and attempted to calculated the effects of water vapor in the atmosphere, including the fact that the concentration of water vapor will increase as the climate warms. They have also taken in to consideration sun spots, solar flares etc etc. They’re not stupid. You can’t say scientists that warn of the perils of climate change are giving “real” scientist a bad name when 99% percent of scientist are in the same camp, and the few who wackos who challenge the settled science are almost always speaking outside their field of expertise. The carbon tax does also apply to natural gas- in proportion to the CO2 it generates (although to be fair, nat gas should probably have an extra tax on it to account for it’s high methane releases- also a greenhouse gas.) Nobody has a problem with the use of oil for lubricants, plastics, etc- just the burning of it. Yes, the earth’s climate has been changing continuously for it’s entire history- the problem is the rapidity and degree of the change being induced today, which appears to far surpass anything in the geological record with the exception of a few cataclysmic events that resulted in the extinction of the vast majority of all terrestrial species living at the time. Last, but not least: why not add this hellish landscape to your roster of “propaganda” photos http://cdn.lightgalleries.net/4bd5ec0174be3/images/ts-sept-5659-2.jpg

  • Ah Jaysus

    NDP are ashamed of Alberta’s oil wealth so they’d rather import oil from terrorist states such as Saudi Arabia etc. What a pathetic excuse for a government. Alberta is doomed.

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