The ever-magnanimous Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has come up with yet another reason to continually expand the country’s fossil production. It claims that’s the best way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s because “oil and gas companies are increasingly frustrated with Canada’s inefficient and duplicative climate policies and are moving investment to countries with little or no emissions reduction programs,” JWN Energy reports.
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“The goal of any climate policies should be to decrease global GHG emissions—not just in Canada,” CAPP said in a release. “Currently, climate policies in Canada come at a high cost to the country’s economy with minimal effect on global emissions as natural gas and oil production migrates to regions with fewer, if any, regulations.”
CAPP President Tim McMillan said Canada has lost C$56 billion in fossil investment over the last three years.
The statement adds that “the loss of investment to other oil- and natural gas-producing regions deprives Canadians of the social and economic benefits that come from a thriving natural gas and oil industry in Canada. This phenomenon, known as carbon leakage, jeopardizes global GHG emission reduction targets and prevents the world from accessing Canada’s responsibly-produced energy.”
The report urges protections for emissions-intensive, trade-exposed fossil producers in Canada, limits on the “duplicative and costly” Clean Fuel Standard that is elsewhere recognized as a cornerstone of Canada’s emissions reduction strategy, use of carbon offsets to meet the country’s carbon targets, reinvestment of carbon price revenue from fossil companies in the industry’s own innovation, and tax deductions for natural gas and oil investment to protect “the competitiveness of internationally trade-exposed industries”.
