FFWD REW

Alberta doesn’t want to play by the rules

Province seeking changes to coal plant regulations

The Alberta government is asking for the federal government to make significant changes to proposed regulations on coal plant emissions. Alberta joins Nova Scotia in presenting a formal submission to the federal government during the 60-day review period asking for changes to the regulations which are slated to come into effect in 2015.

Dr. Tim Weis director of renewable energy and efficiency policy at the Pembina Institute says he understands why Nova Scotia which has emissions legislation of its own that is stricter than that proposed by Ottawa is unhappy with the regulations. But he questions the impetus behind Alberta’s submission.

“It’s hard to be sympathetic to Alberta’s case with so little information” Weis says. “This throws a significant question mark into how these regulations play out.”

Chris Bordeau a spokesperson for Alberta Environment could not give any specifics as to what changes Alberta will be asking the feds to make but says that the submission concentrates on four main points: increasing flexibility of the regulations for industry; aligning the regulations with those of the United States; ensuring Alberta consumers are not unfairly impacted; and ensuring regulations do not hamper efforts to develop carbon capture and storage.

“We agree on the outcome of reducing emissions in the coal sector” Bordeau says. “We are asking for more flexibility so we can achieve the same objective but maybe get there a different way.”

Madeline Wilson conservation specialist for the Alberta Wilderness Association is not surprised Alberta is trying to get in the way of this legislation. “It shows that even when the federal government takes steps to protect the environment the provincial government will undermine that” she says.

The implementation of the regulations is entirely at the discretion of the federal environment minister and Wilson is concerned that with the government’s past record of failures in protecting Canada’s environment this will be another lost opportunity.

“There is a lack of commitment to any legislation and the legislation itself has so many loopholes” says Wilson.

Alberta’s submission comes after Maxim Power Corp. received approval for their Milner plant from the Alberta Utilities Commission in June with the explicit intention of having the plant up and running by 2015 to escape the federal regulations which will not apply to existing plants.

At first the federal government seemed complicit in this approval despite promises made a year ago by former Environment minister Jim Prentice that new plants would not be allowed to be pushed through before 2015 in an effort to escape the regulations. A document submitted by Maxim to the Alberta Utilities Commission stated that it had received assurances from the federal environment minister that it could avoid being subject to the new regulations if it could get its plant operational by July 1 2015 — a deadline that it could only meet if the AUC approved the expansion by June 30.

In recent weeks after public backlash Environment Minister Peter Kent signalled that he would uphold the promises of a year ago but Wilson is skeptical. “Maxim had been told what to do to escape the legislation” she says. “As soon as there is the first test of this legislation we see (the federal government) not following through.”

Not only will the new Maxim plant not meet the incoming federal regulations but Weis calls the approval a step backward for Alberta — the last two plants approved by Alberta the Genesse plant and the Keephills plant had much more stringent regulations and were only approved after extensive public hearings. “(The approval) was a bit of a surprise” Weis says. “It was a strange move for the AUC especially knowing the federal regulations were coming through.”

Geoff Scotton the senior communications advisor for the AUC explains that Epcor and TransAlta which owned the plants at the time volunteered for more stringent standards than the province requires. “The (Maxim plant) meets and exceeds provincial and federal standards” Scotton says.

He also points out that when the successor to Epcor and TransAlta Capital Power sought to be released from the more stringent regulations the AUC turned it down a move that was applauded by Pembina.

The Pembina Institute and Ecojustice have taken the AUC to court over the Maxim approval which they say should never have occurred without a public hearing. Ecojustice states in a press release: “We intend to prove that the AUC made a decision that affects the public interest without reviewing all the evidence. We will also show that the AUC was wrong in its decision that skirting pending federal regulations is in the public interest.”

Scotton would not comment on the approval since it is before the courts except to say “We followed our usual process and no parties with standing opposed the approval.”

But according to Wilson it is virtually impossible to be granted standing. “You have to be living within two kilometres of the project and prove that you are directly and adversely affected” she says. “But something as big as this is not something that just affects those people within two kilometres and it limits the way in which NGOs can get involved.”

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