Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to have some unhappy supporters south of the border if he goes after Canadian energy with trade sanctions.
Notley, who is on a trade mission in China, says she doesn't know what Trump was talking about last week when he lumped energy in with what he considers are other trade irritants, including softwood lumber and dairy.
"We're not exactly sure what it is he was referring to," Notley said in a conference call Monday. "We're trying to get a sense of that."
She noted that many of Trump's backers need and want energy from north of the border, so Canada is likely to have a lot of allies.
"The leadership of the U.S. administration is going to find that they have a lot of their own stakeholders reminding them how much they need Canadian energy," she said.
"It's not something as simple as just throwing a border adjustment tax, because in fact there will be huge consequences and cost increases for a number of different players throughout the U.S. should that happen."
Canada has found itself in the crosshairs as Trump pushes for what he says will be "very big changes" to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump has upped his rhetoric on NAFTA and is calling the deal a disaster that he plans to get rid of once and for all.
Notley said Trump's talk is another argument for expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline to the B.C. coast so Alberta's oil can be shipped to other markets overseas.
Alberta's draft rules for methane coming later this year
Alberta, the province at the heart of Canada’s oil patch, is moving ahead with plans to slash one of its most powerful sources of heat-trapping pollution, said Notley.
Alberta’s annual emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, are higher than any other province, in part due to its oil and gas industry. This sector is responsible for close to three quarters of the provincial total.
Notley's NDP government has pledged to reduce methane emissions 45 per cent by 2025. The province, which put a price on carbon Jan. 1, is set to introduce draft methane regulations later this year, the premier said.
Alberta is “still committed to the target, it’s a component of our climate leadership plan,” said Notley. “We’ll have draft rules around that in place this fall.”
“The companies are aware that a regulatory backstop will come into effect and as a result of that, in the short term when it’s paired with the climate levy, it’s actually an incentive for them to move more quickly, and we’re seeing that kind of work underway.”
The Trudeau government signaled last week it would propose a delay in its timeline for implementing federal regulations to start cutting methane.
The federal government says it’s still committed to meet a similar national target of a 40 to 45 per cent reduction in annual emissions by 2025. But environmental groups were disappointed with the move, and say this will prevent Canada from meeting its targets.
It wasn't immediately clear if Alberta was also planning to delay implementation.
Alberta’s methane emissions were 44 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013, according to the federal government’s latest greenhouse gas national inventory report.
The province is the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, having increased its emissions 53 per cent since 1990, “mostly driven by the enhanced production of petroleum resources,” the report states.
Comments
Maybe there should be a price on Methane to incentivize Industry to clean up it's act. It should also apply to the cattle barons using public lands for almost nothing. Cattle are big emitters and ranchers are expecting to be able to dramatically increase sales overseas thanks to CETA (and they hope TPP). Tens if thousands more cattle means a lot more emissions.
"The leadership of the U.S. administration is going to find that they have a lot of their own stakeholders reminding them how much they need Canadian energy," she said.
You mean reminding them of how much Canadian energy they own, and to be sure to get them a deal.
Playing chicken with Trump, might not work out so well for Alberta. We are just little Texas, after all. The US have become our largest competitor and remain pretty much our only market. We also need their condensate to transport bitumen. This will get messy. But one things for certain, some companies and families will prosper…Exxon, Koch.
Regarding methane, to reference as such, is inaccurate. Being released are formation gases, which are mostly methane, but also contain pentane, butane, hexane, ethane, propane, VOC's, heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, nickel and vanadium), nitrogen, potentially NORMs and H2S. Raw formation gas is a potential carcinogen.
http://www.conocophillips.com/sustainable-development/Documents/SMID_21…
http://www.conocophillips.com/sustainable-development/Documents/SMID_21…
Formation gases are being released everywhere, at all stages of exploration, production, processing and transmission, and much of it is going unmonitored and un-reported.
An example, 14-15 (Angle Energy , then Bellatrix, now Transglobe) a crude oil well by our home vented formations gases for nearly 5 years, without regulatory license. Another well site, same trio of owners, vented for years, but never reported the venting, yet another, had an untested surface casing vent flow for 3 years.
Fugitives, leakage from gas storage fields, temporary vents, maintenance emissions, gas to surface during drilling, un-combusted flaring and incineration emissions, methanol venting, non-routine venting, plant turnarounds, line purging, release incidents, instrument venting and fuel use, SCVF, gas migrations, CBM operations, transmission and gas gathering venting are all areas of formation gas production and release. Not a single procedure mentioned and their associated emissions, are accurately tested or monitored.
Under Directive 17, emissions are estimated, usually on the low end. If, they are measured at all. I would expect that if the AER investigated and audited well sites and facilities in Alberta, they would discover thousands of non-compliant operations regarding venting and fugitive emissions management plans-which under AER directives are voluntary and un-enforced. How many companies failed to complete, submit, or fudged, the conservation requirements?
Additionally, what volume of formation gas is being liberated due to induced seismic events that are plaguing fracking operations in the NW Alberta? No-one has even mentioned this issue at all.
Alberta’s emissions of methane heavy formation gases are easily double of what is being reported. Using 2014 data is the lowest hanging fruit, in a time when only 1,800 gas wells were drilled (662 in 2016, 1,145 in 2015) as opposed to 2004 to 2008 when an average of 10,000 gas wells were drilled each year.
The Premier’s promises on formation gas reductions will not materialize for four reasons:
1. Industry and CAPP will lobby the issue to death. If not to death, they will work with their eNGO friends (Pembina, EnviroDefence, STAND et al) to create a document that reads like methane will be managed, but it won’t. One could bet, somewhere in that policy, the public will be liable for industries costs. Like the $33 million the NDP already threw at this issue, in October 2016.
2. The NDP have no concrete data on the actual volume of formation gas emissions in the province, with huge volumes not being reported. You can not manage, what you do not measure.
3. The suggested emissions reduction program is expected to be voluntary and non-regulatory, and overseen by the AER. Why not laugh now? The AER will not enforce this program. The AER has no public interest or public health mandate and are 100% industry funded and are legally immune from any and all of the corporations regulatory action or inaction. The AER haven’t given one pile of peanut butter about methane emissions management for decades, as evidenced by absence of directives targeting formation gas emissions and related monitoring, testing, and reporting. Now is no different.
Non-compliances were not levied by the AER for the well sites by our home that vented without license, or failed to report SCVF. Under AER directives these events pose a high risk to the public and/or environment, but the AER deliberately failed to enforce their own legislation. The AER is abetting companies in obfuscating illegal operations, which harm public health and the environment. Expect more AER collusion with this program.
To further, under the program, all legacy wells will be exempt from engineering and design controls, yet these wells are where you have your most serious leakage issues. There are 10, 240 leaking wells in Alberta, over 82,000 inactive or suspended wells and some 3000 abandoned wells. There are thousands upon thousands of more unused pipeline segments, conduits for leakage.
Methane reductions, as presented currently, will be token, unenforceable and largely ineffective. "Backstopping with regulatory measures", that’s a megatonne of hot air in itself.
Expect emissions to increase, particularly if there is an increase in activity. The NDP plan on replacing 70% of the coal fired electrical generation with fracked gas. The emissions, if measured and reported properly, will be immense.
4. By 2020 there may be new governance and if it’s the PCs, they will repeal all environmental controls on industry immediately. 2025 is so far out, predicting reductions into this timeframe, you might as well state the obvious, there is no authenticity to these commitments.
Again, where is the intellectual reporting on any of supporting evidence and policies regarding formation gas emissions? At the very least, correct the narrative that such emissions are simply methane.
Also worth mention, is the intentional disregard the NDP, AER, AHS and industry employ regarding the serious hazards posed by leaking formation gases.
I have requested from all levels of industry, the AER and government, that vent flows on well sites be properly signed, for safety of residents, employees and emergency personnel. Currently, the AER and industry do not inform landowners that the wells on their land are leaking formation gases. This poses a serious violation of personal safety rights. Farmers here regularly uses lease sites for parking and fuelling farm equipment during seeding and harvest. Many graze livestock right by these wells. The public use these sites for walking pets, hunting, making out, and dumping garbage. In our lawsuit Angle disclosed surveillance pictures of well site 5-15 labeled “DD tresspass” (sic), yet, it was not our vehicle or dog in the pictures, but does demonstrate, how unauthorized access to these sites is common. If there is an accident on these sites, should emergency workers know that potentially toxic formation gas are being released uncontrolled on site? Shouldn’t landowners know too, so they can take precautions to test their water and/or not get blown up (as per link below)? Apparently the NDP and the AER do not see it that way, signage and notification to landowners has not occurred and addressing methane hazards is not even on the agenda.
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/anadarko-to-shut-down-3000-oil-wells-af…
http://calgaryherald.com/business/local-business/reports-say-oil-and-ga…
"The leadership of the U.S. administration is going to find that they have a lot of their own stakeholders reminding them how much they need Canadian energy," she said.
You mean reminding them of how much Canadian energy they own, and to be sure to get them a deal.
Playing chicken with Trump, might not work out so well for Alberta. We are just little Texas, after all. The US have become our largest competitor and remain pretty much our only market. We also need their condensate to transport bitumen. This will get messy. But one things for certain, some companies and families will prosper…Exxon, Koch.
Regarding methane, to reference as such, is inaccurate. Being released are formation gases, which are mostly methane, but also contain pentane, butane, hexane, ethane, propane, VOC's, heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, nickel and vanadium), nitrogen, potentially NORMs and H2S. Raw formation gas is a potential carcinogen.
http://www.conocophillips.com/sustainable-development/Documents/SMID_21…
http://www.conocophillips.com/sustainable-development/Documents/SMID_21…
Formation gases are being released everywhere, at all stages of exploration, production, processing and transmission, and much of it is going unmonitored and un-reported.
An example, 14-15 (Angle Energy , then Bellatrix, now Transglobe) a crude oil well by our home vented formations gases for nearly 5 years, without regulatory license. Another well site, same trio of owners, vented for years, but never reported the venting, yet another, had an untested surface casing vent flow for 3 years.
Fugitives, leakage from gas storage fields, temporary vents, maintenance emissions, gas to surface during drilling, un-combusted flaring and incineration emissions, methanol venting, non-routine venting, plant turnarounds, line purging, release incidents, instrument venting and fuel use, SCVF, gas migrations, CBM operations, transmission and gas gathering venting are all areas of formation gas production and release. Not a single procedure mentioned and their associated emissions, are accurately tested or monitored.
Under Directive 17, emissions are estimated, usually on the low end. If, they are measured at all. I would expect that if the AER investigated and audited well sites and facilities in Alberta, they would discover thousands of non-compliant operations regarding venting and fugitive emissions management plans-which under AER directives are voluntary and un-enforced. How many companies failed to complete, submit, or fudged, the conservation requirements?
Additionally, what volume of formation gas is being liberated due to induced seismic events that are plaguing fracking operations in the NW Alberta? No-one has even mentioned this issue at all.
Alberta’s emissions of methane heavy formation gases are easily double of what is being reported. Using 2014 data is the lowest hanging fruit, in a time when only 1,800 gas wells were drilled (662 in 2016, 1,145 in 2015) as opposed to 2004 to 2008 when an average of 10,000 gas wells were drilled each year.
The Premier’s promises on formation gas reductions will not materialize for four reasons:
1. Industry and CAPP will lobby the issue to death. If not to death, they will work with their eNGO friends (Pembina, EnviroDefence, STAND et al) to create a document that reads like methane will be managed, but it won’t. One could bet, somewhere in that policy, the public will be liable for industries costs. Like the $33 million the NDP already threw at this issue, in October 2016.
2. The NDP have no concrete data on the actual volume of formation gas emissions in the province, with huge volumes not being reported. You can not manage, what you do not measure.
3. The suggested emissions reduction program is expected to be voluntary and non-regulatory, and overseen by the AER. Why not laugh now? The AER will not enforce this program. The AER has no public interest or public health mandate and are 100% industry funded and are legally immune from any and all of the corporations regulatory action or inaction. The AER haven’t given one pile of peanut butter about methane emissions management for decades, as evidenced by absence of directives targeting formation gas emissions and related monitoring, testing, and reporting. Now is no different.
Non-compliances were not levied by the AER for the well sites by our home that vented without license, or failed to report SCVF. Under AER directives these events pose a high risk to the public and/or environment, but the AER deliberately failed to enforce their own legislation. The AER is abetting companies in obfuscating illegal operations, which harm public health and the environment. Expect more AER collusion with this program.
To further, under the program, all legacy wells will be exempt from engineering and design controls, yet these wells are where you have your most serious leakage issues. There are 10, 240 leaking wells in Alberta, over 82,000 inactive or suspended wells and some 3000 abandoned wells. There are thousands upon thousands of more unused pipeline segments, conduits for leakage.
Methane reductions, as presented currently, will be token, unenforceable and largely ineffective. "Backstopping with regulatory measures", that’s a megatonne of hot air in itself.
Expect emissions to increase, particularly if there is an increase in activity. The NDP plan on replacing 70% of the coal fired electrical generation with fracked gas. The emissions, if measured and reported properly, will be immense.
4. By 2020 there may be new governance and if it’s the PCs, they will repeal all environmental controls on industry immediately. 2025 is so far out, predicting reductions into this timeframe, you might as well state the obvious, there is no authenticity to these commitments.
Again, where is the intellectual reporting on any of supporting evidence and policies regarding formation gas emissions? At the very least, correct the narrative that such emissions are simply methane.
Also worth mention, is the intentional disregard the NDP, AER, AHS and industry employ regarding the serious hazards posed by leaking formation gases.
I have requested from all levels of industry, the AER and government, that vent flows on well sites be properly signed, for safety of residents, employees and emergency personnel. Currently, the AER and industry do not inform landowners that the wells on their land are leaking formation gases. This poses a serious violation of personal safety rights. Farmers here regularly uses lease sites for parking and fuelling farm equipment during seeding and harvest. Many graze livestock right by these wells. The public use these sites for walking pets, hunting, making out, and dumping garbage. In our lawsuit Angle disclosed surveillance pictures of well site 5-15 labeled “DD tresspass” (sic), yet, it was not our vehicle or dog in the pictures, but does demonstrate, how unauthorized access to these sites is common. If there is an accident on these sites, should emergency workers know that potentially toxic formation gas are being released uncontrolled on site? Shouldn’t landowners know too, so they can take precautions to test their water and/or not get blown up (as per link below)? Apparently the NDP and the AER do not see it that way, signage and notification to landowners has not occurred and addressing methane hazards is not even on the agenda.
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/anadarko-to-shut-down-3000-oil-wells-af…
http://calgaryherald.com/business/local-business/reports-say-oil-and-ga…