Pathways Alliance

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says a major federal tax credit to help build carbon capture projects is almost in place, and she wants to see quick progress on the project promised by Canada's biggest oilsands firms.

It’s no surprise that companies promoting “net-zero fossil fuel production” — an oxymoron if there ever was one — might be worried about stronger laws against false and misleading environmental claims. 

The Pathways Alliance represents the titans of Canada's oil and gas industry, and according to a leading international think tank, the group is using a three-step greenwashing strategy aimed at extracting tax dollars and delaying climate action.

With so many livelihoods dependent on oil, all eyes here are on the expected opening this week of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, a years-in-the-making megaproject which will soon start shipping Canadian crude to export markets.

In the months before the federal budget was released, scores of meetings were recorded between fossil fuel industry representatives and the federal government. With a key ask from climate advocates ignored, who is Finance Canada listening to?

A consortium of Canada's largest oilsands companies will submit an application before the end of the week for approval of its proposed $16.5-billion carbon capture pipeline project.

The oilsands industry keeps saying it can't proceed with carbon capture and storage projects because of "political uncertainty." What its leaders won't say is the name of the politician who's actually creating it: Pierre Poilievre.

Authors of a report published in the journal Science, say the massive releases of volatile organic compounds, separate from the industry's climate-change-causing emissions, raise concerns about what those hundreds of complex, highly reactive chemicals are doing in the environment. 

At COP28, oil and gas companies and petrostates like Alberta made their pitch to have their climate cake and eat it too. Now that the conference is over and the world has agreed to transition away from fossil fuels, they're in for a rude awakening.

The federal government faced fierce external pressure to abandon or weaken its plan to cap oil and gas sector emissions from provincial governments and industry lobby groups in the lead-up to its announcement last week.

The alliance head of Canada’s major oilsands producers says he is "a bit mystified" by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s reaction to the federal government's plan to cut methane emissions.

"They're private sector entities for whom their priority is to do what's best for their business. And that doesn't make them evil, but it does mean they don't belong here.”

After last week's federal fall economic statement, however, Pathways president Kendall Dilling said the likelihood of a positive decision on the project has increased.

Derek Evans, chief executive of MEG Energy, made the comments on a conference call with analysts discussing the company's third-quarter financial results.

It’s no secret oilsands companies intend to ramp up production despite the rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis, and one longtime industry executive laid out his arguments for doing just that at a federal committee Monday.