Lax Limits for Major Global Warming Polluters Mean Tarsands Companies Could Get Paid to Pollute

The Tyndall Centre used published tarsands growth and greenhouse gas mitigation scenarios to assess the impact of the government’s proposed intensity-based regulation for Large Final Emitters, a key element of Canada’s current climate change plan. Key findings include:

– The government’s proposed requirements dampen
but don’t reduce global warming pollution
from the tarsands; emissions will grow
between 112 per cent and 219 per cent by 2015
– The proposed slowing in emissions growth is
in line with or less than what is expected in
the absence of these government requirements
and in some instances less than what has
already been voluntarily committed to by
industry
– The ability for companies to sell extra
greenhouse gas reductions as carbon credits
under the government’s proposed plan means
that the windfall profit for tarsands
companies could be in the order of $30 – $700
million, according to the report
– The cost of compliance with the government’s
proposed requirements is expected to be
minimal for tarsands companies, ranging from
zero to a maximum eight cents per barrel

“This is a plan in which it pays to pollute. Handing a cash bonus through carbon credits to the companies responsible for the fastest growing source of global warming pollution in Canada does not make sense for the health of the planet, or for Canada’s credibility on the world stage,” said Mike Russill, President & CEO of WWF-Canada and former oil industry executive.

“It’s time for the federal government to face the fact that intensity-based greenhouse gas reduction is not real reduction, and immediately revise the requirements for large industry to ensure emissions actually go down,” said Russill.