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Alberta Set to Double Carbon Tax Rate in Canada’s Oil Heartland


By Rachel Browne
June 26, 2015


In its quest to become a leader in the fight against climate change, the newly elected left-wing government in Alberta has announced major changes to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Canada's oil-rich province.

The province's heaviest emitters — defined as businesses that produce more than 100,000 tons of CO2 per year — will be forced to reduce their CO2 emissions by 15 percent next year, then 20 percent by 2017.

Those emitters, such as oil and gas companies, will also have to pay double the current carbon tax rate they pay on every ton of CO2 they produce beyond those levels, up from $15 to $30. The cost of carbon will also be raised from $2 per ton to approximately $6 by 2017.

"Some will argue we are moving too far and too fast. I say to them that more of the same would be the worst thing we could do for our energy economy and for the future of our province," Alberta's Environment Minister, Shannon Phillips, told reporters on Thursday.

"We are serious about making progress."

The new rules update the province's current gas emissions regulations, which were introduced in 2007 and expired this month.

The announcement comes on the heels of the federal government's pledge to reduce the country's overall emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. And it marks a turning point for a province that has been vilified for producing the vast majority of Canada's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Last month, voters in the longtime conservative stronghold stunned the country by electing a New Democratic Party that promised to rein in the growing energy sector — a sector that has been hit lately by the plummeting price of crude.