Fossil Fuel CEOs Press Ottawa to Ease Climate Rules, Fast-Track Projects

As major fossil fuel companies push the federal government to dismantle key climate policies in the name of economic growth, environmental advocates warn the move would give industry a licence to “pollute without accountability.”

In late April, CEOs of 38 energy companies signed a letter pitching Prime Minister Mark Carney on policy measures they said would help him fulfill his promise to build the fastest-growing economy in the G7, The Canadian Press reported.

They asked [pdf] Carney to scrap the emissions cap on oil and gas producers and repeal industrial carbon pricing to help bolster the industry. They also asked for an overhaul of the federal Impact Assessment Act—which sets out the process for assessing major projects—and of the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, which bans oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 tonnes of crude from stopping along parts of British Columbia’s coastline.

“Your focus on fostering energy independence and enhancing Canada’s energy infrastructure and clean technology requires major sector investment and globally competitive energy and carbon policies,” they wrote to Carney. “Over the last decade, the layering and complexity of energy policies has resulted in a lack of investor confidence and, consequently, a barrier to investment.”

Emilia Belliveau, energy transition program manager at Environmental Defence Canada, told The Energy Mix the letter amounts to a “Trojan horse.” 

“When you read between the lines of their five demands, what it actually is across the board is deregulation and finding new ways to channel subsidies to the industry and to allow them to continue to pollute without accountability.”

Fast-Tracking Collides with Fair Process

Carney campaigned on expediting reviews of major energy infrastructure projects. He promised before the election to move forward with a “one project, one review” approach by recognizing provincial and territorial assessments.

At least one of the CEOs who signed the letter, Enbridge’s Greg Ebel, took Carney’s comments as a sign that the feds would support a push for more conventional energy infrastructure, like pipelines, reported Yahoo Finance.

But policy experts are raising concerns about what may be lost if impact assessments are fast-tracked. Companies might sidestep their obligations to Indigenous communities and to women, gender-diverse people, people with disabilities, and racialized people, they argue. Fast-tracking development could mean falling short on other priorities and legal commitments—a move that will backfire, leading to delays rather than more efficient processes, while worsening inequalities.

The CEOs called for reducing regulatory timelines for new projects to a six-month window. Belliveau said that time frame is unrealistic and neglectful, operating on the assumption that projects should go through regardless of their impact.

Instead, projects need to be evaluated for their viability, safety, and compliance with Canada’s obligation to ensure free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous communities, Belliveau said. Essentially: “What are the environmental and climate consequences, and are they really worth it?”

Still, the current process can be improved, Belliveau added, citing the application processes for Indigenous-owned renewable energy companies as an example.

Current regulations require that stakeholders meet the requirements of an excessive number of government agencies—a process that is even more cumbersome because the agencies are not always aligned, she told The Mix. But regulatory reform shouldn’t be used to “bulldoze through” fossil fuel infrastructure without adequate time for impact assessment, real consultation with Indigenous communities, and information gathering on long-term consequences in a climate crisis.

Deregulation and Competitiveness

The CEOs also pressed Carney to drop Canada’s industrial carbon pricing system, asserting that it produces “uncompetitive costs” compared to other oil producers in the market. “A solution is to revert to the functioning system where provinces administer the policies and pricing to enable emissions-reduction investments, improve emissions performance, and maintain competitiveness.”

Carney campaigned on strengthening industrial carbon pricing after he scrapped the consumer carbon price. In a release issued Monday after Alberta froze its current industrial carbon price, Canadian Climate Institute Dale Beugin said the current system adds 30¢ to the price of a barrel of oil.

Last November, before Carney became prime minister, the federal government unveiled its proposed emissions cap regulations. They would compel upstream oil and gas operations to reduce emissions to 35% below 2019 levels, but postponed the first compliance period to the years between 2030 and 2032.

Carney said he wouldn’t be scrapping the regulations—but in March he also told reporters he would prioritize “working with industry and with provinces on specific ways” to reduce emissions “as opposed to having preset caps or preset restrictions on preset timelines.”

 CBC News wrote that Carney’s comments seemed to contradict those of newly-appointed environment minister Terry Duguid, who said the emissions cap would stay in place.

The CEOs’ letter comes at a time when the governments of European countries, which are important trading partners for Canada, are themselves walking back climate measures to prioritize economic competitiveness. Earlier this year, the European Commission proposed legislation that would weaken reporting requirements for many companies’ emissions. But Julie Segal, senior program manager of climate finance at Environmental Defence, told the Globe and Mail that Canada lags behind the European Union on climate policy.

“All of Canada’s closest non-U.S. trade partners are far more advanced on sustainable finance policies— some with taxonomies, almost all with disclosures, almost all with 1.5°C-aligned transition plans,” Segal said. “If we want to strengthen trade relationships with the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and countries across Asia, all of those jurisdictions have stronger sustainable finance policies.”

Cover photo:  jasonwoodhead23/flickr