Cenovus Vitality Inc. blasted the Canadian authorities for not offering sufficient monetary assist for the oil-sands trade’s proposed C$16.5 billion ($12.2 billion) carbon seize system.
The federal authorities has proposed tax credit masking about half of the capital prices for the venture, and Alberta has supplied a 12% subsidy. Canada has additionally stated working prices for the venture could be supported with contracts that assure a carbon worth excessive sufficient to make the system worthwhile. However these incentives have been accompanied by plans for a cap on emissions, which vitality producers have criticized.
“The federal government-funding partnerships in Canada aren’t sufficient for large-scale CCS to proceed within the oil sands,” Rhona DelFrari, Cenovus’s chief sustainability officer, stated in an investor day presentation, citing a research by Financial institution of Montreal. “Canada is using a posh, multi-layered and evolving stick-based method with some carrots thrown in. Our closest neighbor to the south is utilizing a simple carrot method that’s much more engaging for CCS initiatives.”
Canada’s oil-sands producers have banded collectively to suggest a carbon seize system that might assist lower emissions from operations by 22 million metric tons by 2030 and assist them change into carbon impartial by 2050. The submission of regulatory paperwork for the venture is “imminent,” however the draft tax credit score laws lack readability, and firms want to raised perceive how the carbon worth ensures will work, she stated.
“Any allegation the federal authorities isn’t on the desk with important assist doesn’t mirror actuality,” a spokesperson for Pure Assets Minister Jonathan Wilkinson stated in an emailed assertion. “Additionally it is not backed up with knowledge – a latest Mackenzie Wooden report confirmed that the federal authorities’s CCUS incentives are already a lot larger, and supply extra certainty, than these within the US.”