Alberta to Fight ‘Catastrophic’ Federal Emissions Reduction Plan: Jason Kenney

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks at a press conference in Calgary on March 25, 2022. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the federal government’s new carbon emissions reduction plan would have a “catastrophic” impact on the Canadian economy, and he pledged to fight against it.

The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, introduced to the House of Commons on March 29 by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, suggests that Canada’s oil and gas industry will need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 42 percent below 2019 levels by 2030 if the country is to meet its net-zero emissions target in 2050.

On April 1, the federal carbon tax rose to $50 from $40 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions, which means an added cost of 2.2 cents per litre of gasoline.

Kenney said the emissions reduction policy would be “catastrophic” for the Canadian economy.

“If you don’t like today’s carbon tax at $50 a tonne, just wait, because that policy implies a carbon tax of like $400 a tonne, according to a study done by Environment Canada, which would basically make the basics in life prohibitively expensive,“ he said on April 2 on his weekly phone-in radio program ”Your Province. Your Premier.“

“This policy, it’s nuts.”

He noted that oil and gas production would be forced out of Canada, and instead go to “places like Putin’s Russia and the OPEC dictatorships.”

Kenney pledged to fight against the plan, which he described as a “full-frontal attack on the 800,000 people who work in the energy sector.”

“We think implicit in it is a violation of our exclusive power to regulate the production of our resources,” he said.

Last year, Alberta used a similar argument in a legal challenge against a federal environmental impact assessment law, Bill C-69, which allows Ottawa to examine environmental impacts prior to approving new resource projects. Kenney at the time categorized the Impact Assessment Act as part of Ottawa’s broader anti-oil policies.

On his radio program, he said the Alberta Court of Appeal will soon deliver a ruling on the case, which he said would be a key part of Alberta’s fight against the federal emissions targets.

In an op-ed published April 2, Alberta Environment Minister Jason Nixon also called out Guilbeault for the emissions reduction plan, which he said will “hit Canadians’ pocketbooks.”

“To be clear, there are only two ways to reduce emissions—either invest in technology, or reduce economic activity. Alberta will not accept a plan that explicitly plans to reduce economic activity,” Nixon wrote.

“The world needs more oil and gas, and Alberta’s government is not interested in a transition from jobs in the energy sector laid out in the plan.”