A Hard Push To The Left: Alberta's Proposed Carbon Competitiveness Regulation

Alberta's Climate Change Advisory Panel has provided a Climate Leadership Report to the Minister recommending, among other things, that Alberta introduce a complicated Carbon Competitiveness Regulation that will cover an estimated 78 to 90% of the province's carbon emissions with carbon pricing at $30 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Changes to regulation of the oil and gas, oilsands, refining, electrical generation, transportation and heating fuels sectors are at the heart of the recommendations.

Although a draft of the proposed Carbon Competitiveness Regulation has not yet been released, the Climate Leadership Report to the Minister (Report) recommends, among other things, rewarding the top quartile of large emitters and penalizing the remaining 75%, accelerating the phase out of coal power, subsidizing renewable power and reducing methane emissions.