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CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Alberta has officially rejected the Liberal government’s oil and gas emission cap, saying it would cripple Canada’s economy.
On February 5, Alberta Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz published an open letter to Liberal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, warning him that Alberta will not be enforcing the proposed oil and gas regulations.
“This cap is not realistic or effective, will not achieve its grandiose emissions targets, and will not be tolerated in Alberta,” said Schulz.
“Albertans will not accept this cap or the attack on its constitutional jurisdiction, economy, and citizens that the cap represents,” Alberta wrote in a 24-page response accompanying Schulz’s letter.
Alberta has officially submitted our response on the federal governments plan to Cap Oil and Gas production.
Read my letter to Minister Guilbeault and our full submission here 👇https://t.co/rTvtV6kQf6… pic.twitter.com/AFSJoOj3KF
— Rebecca Schulz (@rebeccakschulz) February 5, 2024
The Liberal government’s Regulatory Framework to Cap Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions draft, published in December, aims to severely limit gas and oil emissions by 2030 to make a net-zero goal by 2050 possible.
However, Alberta pointed out that the proposed regulations are unconstitutional, unrealistic, would prove detrimental to Canada’s economy, and would not necessarily reduce emissions worldwide.
“[The cap] clearly violates Section 92A of the Constitution Act, 1867,” the Alberta government said, referring to a provision in the Constitution protecting provincial jurisdiction over natural resources.
Alberta further revealed that the projected targets are based on outdated data from 2019 and are not realistic given Alberta’s oil and gas production.
Additionally, Alberta warned that the proposed emission regulations “could devastate the economy, lead to massive job losses and hurt the financial well-being of millions of Canadians – all without yielding the intended emissions reduction.”
“The federal government’s proposed Regulatory Framework for an Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap represents a de facto production cap on Alberta’s and Canada’s oil and gas sector,” the province continued.
According to research from the Conference Board of Canada, the federal cap would reduce Canada’s GDP by up to $1 trillion between 2030 and 2040. This could cause up to 151,000 Canadians to lose their jobs by 2030.
Additionally, the loss of Alberta production would affect the federal government’s revenue, which is projected to be reduced by between $84 and $151 billion between 2030 and 2040. During the same time, Alberta’s revenue is expected to drop by $73 and $127 billion, while employee earnings across Canada would decrease by $460 billion.
Alberta also pointed out that the Liberal government’s plan does not necessarily mean less emissions, as other, less environmentally responsible countries will have to produce more oil to meet the demand.
“The cap will not result in a global greenhouse gas emission reduction, but rather result in carbon leakage along with transfer of production, wealth, and jobs to other less reliable and less environmentally responsible countries,” the Alberta government warned.
As a result, Alberta called on the federal government to abandon their regulations, and instead work with the provinces individually.
“Instead of pursuing this unconstitutional cap, we are calling on your government to immediately halt further development and begin meaningful collaboration within established provincial regulatory regimes on oil and gas regulation and emissions reductions,” Schulz wrote.
“Alberta would welcome federal investment to help the oil and gas industry – and other industries – advance and adopt technology to reduce emissions to support our goals of carbon neutrality by 2050,” she stated.
This is hardly the first time that the Alberta government has stood up to the Liberal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gas and oil regulations.
In December, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith blasted Guilbeault’s plan to slash oil and gas emissions by 35% to 38% below 2019 levels as “unrealistic” and “unconstitutional.”
The Trudeau government is trying to force net-zero regulations on all Canadian provinces, notably on electricity generation, as early as 2035. His government has also refused to extend a carbon tax exemption on heating fuels to all provinces, allowing only Atlantic provinces this benefit.
Trudeau’s current environmental goals are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades.
The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.
In November, after announcing she had “enough” of Trudeau’s extreme environmental rules, Smith said her province had no choice but to assert control over its electricity grid to combat federal overreach by enacting its Sovereignty Act. The Sovereignty Act serves to shield Albertans from future power blackouts due to federal government overreach.
Unlike most provinces in Canada, Alberta’s electricity industry is nearly fully deregulated. However, the government still has the ability to take control of it at a moment’s notice.
Send a note thanking Danielle Smith for recent pro-family policies today