Federal Government Proposes Clean Electricity Regulations

On August 10, 2023, the federal government released a draft of its much-anticipated Clean Electricity Regulations (CER) under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. The release follows a lengthy and highly publicized consultation on the development of a national clean electricity standard, as described in our March 2022 Bulletin.

What you need to know

• Who the rules cover. The CER would cover all generating units that generate electricity using fossil fuels, have a capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) or greater, and are connected to an electricity system that is subject to North American Electric Reliability Corporation standards.
• Emissions intensity limit.The CER would impose a performance standard—essentially, an emissions intensity limit—of 30 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour (tCO2/GWh) of electricity generated by covered units, measured on an annual average basis, provided the unit is a net exporter of electricity to the grid in the applicable year.