 Environment - March 12, 2008 |
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Federal green plan focuses on carbon capture rules
Better alternatives available, Green candidate argues |
By Kevin Ma
Staff Writer
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New federal climate change rules announced this week mean that all oilsands and coal plants in Canada will have to pipe their greenhouse gases underground by 2018. Industry officials say the rules are doable, while one local politician has denounced them as "pathetic."
Environment Minister John Baird released an outline of the regulations that will implement the federal government’s climate change plan Monday. The finished rules will not be available until 2009.
The outline notes that Canada is already 32 per cent over its Kyoto reduction targets, and will be 58 per cent over by 2020 if nothing is done. The government’s plan proposes cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent relative to 2006 levels by 2020 and by 65 per cent by 2050.
To reach those targets, the government proposes that all coal power plants and oilsands operations built after 2012 be required to use carbon capture and sequestration technology by 2018. As previously announced, it would also set mandatory requirements for biofuels in gas and diesel, raise efficiency standards for cars and appliances, and ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012.
Carbon capture and sequestration is a technology where greenhouse gas emissions are piped underground where they will presumably stay for thousands of years. A recent federal task force estimated the technology could potentially cut Canada’s emissions by 600 megatonnes, equal to 80 per cent of the nation’s current emissions.
These rules will make Canada a world leader in green energy technology like carbon capture, said Edmonton-St. Albert MP John Williams. "People are demanding green energy," he said, and these rules will create the incentives for companies to start building it.
"Pathetic," says Green
Edmonton-St. Albert Green Party candidate Peter Johnston blasted the regulations as "pathetic." Carbon capture is an unproven technology, he argued, and it would be better to invest in systems that produce proven reductions in emissions such as renewable energy. "They don’t get it," he said of the federal government. "Instead of putting money into renewable energy they’re putting it into the fossil fuel industry."
Liberal candidate Samir Sleiman criticized the government’s delay in getting these rules in place. The government has been working on these regulations since April 2007, he said, and won’t have them finalized until next year.
St. Albert MLA-elect Ken Allred said he was displeased with the plan’s proposal for a national carbon credit trading system, under which Alberta companies could invest in green projects outside the province to get emission reduction credits. "If we’re going to try and clean up the [pollution] problem in Alberta, let’s clean up the problem in Alberta." Emission reduction cash should stay in Alberta, he said, unless greater reductions can be done more cheaply elsewhere.
Doable, says industry
The oilsands industry has the technology to meet the government’s proposed regulations, said Stephen Kaufman, chair of the Integrated CO2 Network, a group that has long called for a carbon capture network in Alberta. "The challenge will be the cost." His group estimates that carbon capture will initially cost $80 a tonne, meaning it might not be the most cost-effective solution for every company.
The regulations will not harm the Alberta oil economy, Williams said. "Given the global demand for energy, the development of the tarsands is going to continue apace." The government estimates that its measures will cost the country about half a cent off every dollar.
Details of the federal regulations are available at www.ec.gc.ca. |
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