Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Alberta’s plan to make greenhouse gas emissions data the property of the provincial government could lead to oil and gas companies breaking federal laws.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plan is one of many steps she says her government will take to challenge the federal Liberal government’s proposed emissions cap when or if it comes into force.
She says the emissions cap is unconstitutional and harmful to Alberta, and one way she wants to protect oil companies is by taking over the responsibility of emissions reporting to the federal government.
Guilbeault says Smith is being “highly irresponsible.”
He says if individual oil and gas companies stop reporting their emissions data, it would be against the law.
Smith says the Alberta government would still share emissions data with Ottawa, but says the data she would share would represent the entire industry’s emissions and not those of individual companies.
Oil and gas sector: we were not consulted
Meanwhile representatives of Alberta’s oil and gas sector say the provincial government did not consult with their industry before announcing plans to take to challenge the proposed emissions cap.
Tristan Goodman of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada says oil and gas companies were unaware of Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to announce an forthcoming motion under the province’s Sovereignty Act, which Smith said Tuesday will give Alberta the ability to assert ownership over its own fossil fuel resources.
Goodman says companies need to see more detail about what Smith is proposing, particularly on her suggestion that the provincial government could take exclusive control and ownership of emissions data collected at oil and gas company sites.
But Goodman says while there are aspects of the plan that will need to be worked out, the industry is generally pleased that the province is taking strong action to defend the sector.
The proposed federal emissions cap, which is still in draft form, would require oil and gas companies to cut emissions by 35 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030.
The oil and gas industry has maintained that the proposed cap is unconstitutional, and accounts to a cap on production that would severely harm Alberta and the Canadian economy.
–With files from Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press