Carney will maintain oil and gas emissions cap, environment minister says

The Liberals introduced draft regulations back in November that require producers to cut emissions by about one-third over the next eight years.

A Mark Carney government will maintain the cap on emissions from the production of oil and gas, Environment Minister Terry Duguid said in a recent interview.

Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the Liberals promised in the 2021 election to cap emissions from oil and gas and began the process to regulate the cap a year later.

In November, they introduced draft regulations — two years behind schedule — that require producers to cut emissions by about one-third over the next eight years, and said that the regulations did not place a cap on production.

The federal government also proposed a cap-and-trade system where each company would be given an emissions allowance equating to one unit per tonne of carbon pollution. Companies that pollute less would be able to sell their leftover allowance units for profit, while companies that don’t reduce their emissions enough would have to buy allowance units from other companies to stay in compliance.

“We want that energy. What we don’t want is that pollution,” Duguid said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

The Liberals have said repeatedly they aren’t capping production, just the emissions that come from it — a bid to force companies to invest in technology to produce the fuels more cleanly. But industry leaders and conservative politicians insist the targets are too stringent and can’t be met without capping production.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has heavily criticized the emissions cap regulations, saying they set “unrealistic targets” and vows to challenge the regulations in court.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to scrap the emissions cap if elected, and criticized Carney’s stance on the topic in a social media post last week.