Canadian Energy Centre
Canada’s proposed oil and gas emissions cap sends wrong message to allies in Asia: analyst
Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida speaks during the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau, Germany on June 26, 2022 as (L-R) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Schulz look on. Getty Images photo
From the Canadian Energy Centre
‘We want to fill those pipelines and help Japan and Korea get off Russian supply’
Canada’s proposed oil and gas emissions cap sends a conflicting message to allies in Asia, according to a prominent energy policy analyst.
The plan for the cap – widely seen as a cap on production – is being put together just as Canada nears its first large-scale access to Asia’s growing oil and gas demand, notes Heather Exner-Pirot, a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
“Our allies in Asia, particularly Japan and Korea, are waiting for the LNG and the oil,” says Exner-Pirot.
“Everyone knows we only ship to the United States. We haven’t had any real pipeline capacity to the east or to the west. Finally, we’re getting it and now we’re going to curtail production. It makes no sense.”
Oil and gas needs in the Asia Pacific region are expected to continue growing through 2030 and 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.
The recently completed Coastal GasLink pipeline is ready to supply natural gas to the LNG Canada export terminal, which is in the final stages of construction and targeted for startup next year.
Meanwhile the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is weeks away from startup, nearly tripling Canada’s oil export capacity to customers by sea.
The federal plan to cap emissions in 2030 at up to 38 per cent below 2019 levels would require production cuts, according to the Business Council of Canada.
That could threaten world energy security by opening the door to Russia as a bigger supplier instead of Canada, Exner-Pirot says.
“We want to fill those pipelines and help Japan and Korea get off Russian supply and get off OPEC supply, frankly. We want them to have an option,” she says.
“We still haven’t been able to get off Russian oil and gas, and now we want to put in policies that will limit our ability to replace it. Our number one priority should be to replace it.”
Capping emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector would come at great economic cost while having negligible impact on the environment, according to analysis by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
“Each time Ottawa forces the Canadian energy sector to contract, it is foreign producers who win,” said MEI public policy analyst Gabriel Giguère.
“Ottawa does not have the means to affect global demand, so reducing local supply will only end up exporting jobs and tax revenues.”
MEI estimates the proposed cap would cost Canada’s economy upwards of $6 billion per year if fully implemented.
Exner-Pirot argues that through initiatives like the Pathways Alliance in the oil sands, Canada’s energy sector already has credible plans reduce emissions and achieve net zero.
“By forcing this abstract date of 2030, you’re making it far more difficult and more expensive, where it will [already] occur within a reasonable timeframe,” she said.
Alberta
Heavy-duty truckers welcome new ‘natural gas highway’ in Alberta
Clean Energy Fuels CEO Andrew Littlefair, Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose, and Mullen Group chairman Murray Mullen attend the opening of a new Clean Energy/Tourmaline compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
From the Canadian Energy Centre
New compressed natural gas fueling stations in Grande Prairie and Calgary join new stop in Edmonton
Heavy-duty truckers hauling everything from restaurant supplies to specialized oilfield services along one of Western Canada’s busiest corridors now have more access to a fuel that can help reduce emissions and save costs.
Two new fuelling stations serving compressed natural gas (CNG) rather than diesel in Grande Prairie and Calgary, along with a stop that opened in Edmonton last year, create the first phase of what proponents call a “natural gas highway”.
“Compressed natural gas is viable, it’s competitive and it’s good for the environment,” said Murray Mullen, chair of Mullen Group, which operates more than 4,300 trucks and thousands of pieces of equipment supporting Western Canada’s energy industry.
Right now, the company is running 19 CNG units and plans to deploy another 15 as they become available.
“They’re running the highways right now and they’re performing exceptionally well,” Mullen said on Oct. 22 during the ribbon-cutting ceremony opening the new station on the northern edge of Calgary along Highway 2.
“Our people love them, our customers love them and I think it’s going to be the way for the future to be honest,” he said.
Heavy-duty trucks at Tourmaline and Clean Energy’s new Calgary compressed natural gas fuelling station. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
According to Natural Resources Canada, natural gas burns more cleanly than gasoline or diesel fuel, producing fewer toxic pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The two new CNG stops are part of a $70 million partnership announced last year between major Canadian natural gas producer Tourmaline and California-based Clean Energy Fuels.
Their deal would see up to 20 new CNG stations built in Western Canada over the next five years, daily filling up to 3,000 natural gas-fueled trucks.
One of North America’s biggest trucking suppliers to businesses including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Subway and Popeye’s says the new stations will help as it expands its fleet of CNG-powered vehicles across Canada.
Amy Senter, global vice-president of sustainability with Illinois-based Martin Brower, said in a statement that using more CNG is critical to the company achieving its emissions reduction targets.
For Tourmaline, delivering CNG to heavy-duty truckers builds on its multi-year program to displace diesel in its operations, primarily by switching drilling equipment to run on natural gas.
Between 2018 and 2022, the company displaced the equivalent of 36 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of diesel that didn’t get used, or the equivalent emissions of about 58,000 passenger vehicles.
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose speaks to reporters during the opening of a new Tourmaline/Clean Energy compressed natural gas fuelling station in Calgary on Oct. 22, 2024. Photo courtesy Tourmaline
Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose noted that the trucking sector switching fuel from diesel to natural gas is gaining momentum, notably in Asia.
A “small but growing” share of China’s trucking fleet moving to natural gas helped drive an 11 percent reduction in overall diesel consumption this June compared to the previous year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“China’s talking about 30 percent of the trucks sold going forward are to be CNG trucks, and it’s all about reducing emissions,” Rose said.
“It’s one global atmosphere. We’re going to reduce them here; they’re going to reduce them there and everybody’s a net winner.”
Switching from diesel to CNG is “extremely cost competitive” for trucking fleets, said Clean Energy CEO Andrew Littlefair.
“It will really move the big rigs that we need in Western Canada for the long distance and heavy loads,” he said.
Tourmaline and Clean Energy aim to have seven CNG fuelling stations operating by the end of 2025. Construction is set to begin in Kamloops, B.C., followed by Fort McMurray and Fort St. John.
“You’ll have that Western Canadian corridor, and then we’ll grow it from there,” Littlefair said.
Alberta
‘Canada should be bold and more intentional…and respond to a world thirsty for more Canadian-made energy, food and critical minerals’
From the Canadian Energy Centre
Bare minimum amendments to Impact Assessment Act ‘do little’ to address Supreme Court’s concerns
One year ago, the Supreme Court of Canada found the federal government’s law to assess major projects like pipelines and highways breaks the rules of the Canadian constitution.
There’s a good chance it still does, despite amendments enacted this spring.
Lawyers with firms including Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, Bennett Jones and Fasken have warned that Ottawa’s changes to the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) leave it open to further constitutional challenges.
One could come from Alberta as soon as November 1, following a four-week deadline set by Premier Danielle Smith for the federal government to address the province’s concerns.
“I don’t think that the amendments have responded adequately to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision,” says Brad Gilmour, a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt who co-argued Alberta’s successful 2023 reference case to the Supreme Court.
The governments of Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Manitoba supported Alberta’s case, arguing that the IAA had exceeded federal jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court largely agreed, while allowing that there is a place for federal assessment of major projects.
“The court had some significant concerns about federal overreach into areas of provincial jurisdiction, and I think that the amendments have done really little to address that broad concern,” Gilmour says.
“They’ve made very minor changes to the sections that the courts found to be unconstitutional, and the wording they use lacks clarity and lacks certainty.”
Components of the IAA that the Supreme Court found unconstitutional include the decision that starts the process – whether a project requires a federal impact assessment and the decision at its conclusion – whether or not a project should receive final approval to proceed.
“It appears the government has done the minimum possible to address the Supreme Court’s concerns, adding qualifiers to its areas of authority, but failing to correct the legislation’s negative impacts on the pace, cost and efficiency of project approvals,” wrote the Business Council of Canada’s Michael Gullo and Heather Exner-Pirot.
“Canada can’t wait and should be bold and more intentional in its effort to grow market share and respond to a world thirsty for more Canadian-made energy, food and critical minerals.”
According to Gullo and Exner-Pirot, the negative impact of the IAA legislation, which came into effect in 2019, can be seen in Canada’s national inventory of major resource projects.
In 2015, there were 88 energy projects completed with a value of $53 billion. In 2023, that figure halved to 56 completed projects with a value of $26 billion.
Alberta’s government says it has “made repeated requests” for the federal government to consult with the province on the amendments, to no effect.
“Alberta is not taking their foot off the pedal in pushing back,” Exner-Pirot told CEC.
“Our country’s energy and natural resources cannot be developed in a timely and economic manner under the current federal regulatory regime. This is affecting not only the economy, but also our security and our efforts to move to lower emitting energy sources.”
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