Environment Minister Says US Laws Could Backfire

Alberta's Environment Minister, Rob Renner, is in the United States this week to talk about climate change and Alberta's commitment to clean energy. But the Minister is also warning that "new low-carbon fuel standards proposed in the North-eastern U.S. could actually slow the greening of the oilsands", the Edmonton Journalreports. Amid typical and predictable remarks from environmentalists that the Minister's comments are "outrageous", Minister Renner said that "[w]e need to make sure that whatever we do doesn't have the unintended consequence of disinsenting further investment into technology that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions".

Why would they? Because the low carbon fuel standards being proposed penalize more carbon intensive fuel sources like shale gas or oilsands, Alberta's climate change policy. These laws would force refiners to reduce the amount of oilsands fuel in the oil they refine or purchase offsets or credits, ultimately making oil produced from the oilsands more costly.

The Minister wants to ensure that critics of the oilsands understand what they are talking about, given that the anti-oilsands campaigns launched by various environmental organizations never really provide the full picture about the oilsands. The Minister remarked "[i]t's not up to us to tell other jurisdictions what they should and shouldn't do. It's up to us to ensure that as tehy make policy decisions, they do so in the context of thorough information and balanced information".

Despite what the Minister calls a perception that Alberta isn't doing anything about greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, Alberta's climate change policy, which includes spending the millions of dollars in the Climate Change and Emissions Management Fund has reduced Alberta's emissions per barrel of oil produced.

As we reported last week, the CCEMC has announced spending of $71 million on clean and green projects. Tomorrow the specific projects will be revealed. Stay tuned and we will be present for the announcement. Stay tuned.