oil and gas sector

Five days after Steven Guilbeault was appointed Canada's environment minister in October 2021, he headed to Scotland for the annual United Nations climate talks being held in Glasgow.

The organization representing Canada's oil and gas drilling sector is asking the federal government to create a new tax credit it says it needs to help the industry decarbonize.

A cap on greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's oil and gas sector will be ready by the end of next year, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Monday.

With oil and gas companies under increased scrutiny for how they choose to use their record-breaking profits in 2022, the chief executive of Cenovus Energy took aim at critics by highlighting the billions of dollars the industry is expected to contribute in taxes and royalties this year.

As environmental groups urge the federal government to move quickly with an aggressive cap on emissions from the country's oil and gas sector, the industry itself says such a move could actually slow down the sector's own decarbonization efforts.

A coalition of environmental groups is calling on Ottawa to reject any proposals to build export facilities for liquefied natural gas on Canada's East Coast, saying such projects will produce "climate-wrecking emissions."

The federal government is proposing to use an industry-specific cap-and-trade system or a modified carbon pricing system to set a ceiling for emissions from the oil and gas sector and drive them down almost 40 per cent by the end of this decade.

The federal government is delaying new emissions standards on gasoline and diesel another year but is demanding the oil and gas sector make bigger cuts to fuel emissions by 2030 given how much more money the companies are now making.

Canada cut its greenhouse gas emissions by nine per cent in 2020, but whether that is indicative of a long-term trend or merely a product of the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be seen.

Canada's greenhouse gas emissions

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says a new report from the United Nations' climate agency shows the oil and gas sector "cannot do business as usual" even as the government is still considering approving a massive new offshore oil production project.

Canada’s long-awaited plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not aligned with the country’s fair share and contains problematic funding promises for the oil and gas industry, some politicians say.

The program offers loans of up to $50 million to help oil and gas producers meet or exceed regulations enforcing cuts to their methane emissions.  

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole returned Pierre Poilievre to his old job as finance critic, but left former leadership rival Leslyn Lewis off the Opposition's front bench as he released the names of those who will serve in his shadow cabinet when Parliament returns.

The chief executive of one of Canada's major oilsands producers said he's not opposed to a federal cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector, as long as the government realizes large-scale emissions reductions will take years to achieve.