No methane equivalency agreement for Alberta

Province, Ottawa yet to reach agreement to give oil and gas industry one set of rules to follow

EDMONTON – As two sets of methane emissions standards take effect in Alberta on New Year’s Day, the provincial and federal governments have yet to reach an agreement that would give the oil and gas industry one set of rules to follow.

On Monday, the Alberta government announced that oil and gas operations need only register with the Alberta Energy Regulator for the purpose of reporting their methane emissions. Upstream oil and gas facilities must be registered to report emissions to Environment and Climate Change Canada by April 30, 2020.

In January, Alberta Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon aims to meet with his federal counterpart, Jonathan Wilkinson, in hopes of reaching an equivalency agreement that would allow Alberta alone to regulate methane emissions within the province. The federal rules are more prescriptive about how the industry should reduce emissions.

“There’s an urgency to resolve this issue,” Nixon and Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a joint statement on Monday. “Alberta maintains its jurisdiction on energy policy and is ready to provide industry a regulatory framework balancing both the environment and economy.”

In 2015, the former NDP government’s Climate Leadership Plan set a goal of reducing Alberta’s methane emissions by 45 per cent from 2014 levels by the year 2025. The United Conservative Party government has kept that goal.

Natural gas, which consists primarily of methane, can escape at all levels of oil production, from wells, pipelines, tanks, or from remote control sites that vent it to reduce pressure. Methane is 70 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere over a 20-year period, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s website said.

DIFFERING TAKES ON REGULATIONS

Earlier this month, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and a delegation of cabinet ministers and senior civil servants went on a $95,000 trip to Ottawa, toting a wish list of policy and program changes they said would improve Alberta’s economy. Among Kenney’s top-five wishes on the trip was a methane equivalency agreement.

Kenney has touted a study that apparently concludes Alberta’s methane rules are stronger and cheaper than the federal rules. Postmedia requested a reference or copy of that study in early December, but government representatives have not provided information to date.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has estimated the federal regulations will cost the industry three times as much to meet as the Alberta rules.

“While industry is committed to achieving reduction targets, CAPP encourages a flexible, results-oriented and streamlined approach to reducing methane emissions that also stimulates technology and innovation and ensures Alberta remains competitive,” Patrick McDonald, director of climate at CAPP, said in a Tuesday statement.