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Now that an agreement has cleared major hurdles for the Pathways carbon capture and storage project, the mayors of the two communities that will host the infrastructure say they are looking forward to the construction and production jobs in their regions.<\/p>\n
The Alberta and federal governments announced Monday that they had signed an agreement with five of the largest companies in the oilsands to pursue the project and also to increase oil production.<\/p>\n
Community leaders in Fort McMurray and Cold Lake celebrated Monday\u2019s news. Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Mayor Sandy Bowman said in a statement that \u201cwe know that when we succeed, Alberta and the rest of Canada succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the ability and capacity to set an example for the world in how energy security, economic opportunity and social prosperity go hand in hand,\u201d he said. \u201cThis partnership announcement is a step in the right direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe important thing now is that this direction becomes reality, including for the people that call this place home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cold Lake Mayor Bob Mattice said he is looking forward to the construction and production jobs that Pathways and the pipeline will create in northeastern Alberta. The city has already been preparing for an expansion of CFB Cold Lake, said Mattice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are expecting unparalleled growth, hopefully, in our area,\u201d he told CBC News. \u201cOur task as a government is to make sure we’ve got things in place like housing and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur concerns are getting enough trades and builders to the area and managing the growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following through on the Pathways Project is a condition by the federal government for Alberta to\u00a0 have a new West Coast pipeline be built. The Pathways Project\u2019s proponents say it will offset some of the carbon dioxide emissions from increased oil production to fill the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Kendall Dilling, president of the Oil Sands Alliance group that represents five oilsands firms, told CBC News that Monday\u2019s announcement shows other countries that Canada can meet their energy demands.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, a lot of the rest of the world had written us off five years ago as a country that had no national consensus around developing our resources,\u201d said Dilling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know lots of people are saying, \u2018Well, let\u2019s see some action \u2014 there\u2019s been lots of great talk.\u2019 Today\u2019s announcement is hopefully part of showing that this is translating into real projects moving ahead and making a difference in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Grow production while investing in carbon capture\u2019<\/p>\n
The plan for the Pathways Project is to use a 400-kilometre pipeline network to carry carbon dioxide emissions from 20 oilsands facilities in the Fort McMurray region to an underground storage facility in the Cold Lake area.<\/p>\n
The trilateral agreement says six million tonnes of carbon dioxide would be captured annually by the mid-2030s and an additional 10 million tonnes by 2045.<\/p>\n
The federal government has said that as of 2024, the oilsands produced 92 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.<\/p>\n
The project originally had an estimated price tag of $16.5 billion. But at an energy conference last month, Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie said he believes\u00a0Pathways will likely cost between $20 billion and $30 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cCarbon capture and storage doesn’t make money, it is a cost,\u201d said Dilling. \u201c[But] if we can create the conditions to grow production while investing in carbon capture, then it also works for companies and for their shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottawa is using tax credits to help fund the project. This includes covering half the cost of eligible carbon capture equipment and 37.5 per cent for the transportation, storage and use equipment that is also needed.<\/p>\n
The Alberta government pledges to \u201cimplement financial supports\u201d to encourage oil production for pipelines, including a new West Coast pipeline.<\/p>\n
“The biggest nation-building projects in Canada’s history have succeeded through partnership,” Premier Danielle Smith said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Support, opposition for project\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith said her province wants oilsands production to double to eight million barrels per day during the next 10 to 15 years. The proposed new West Coast pipeline would carry one million barrels of oil per day to the Roberts Bank Terminal in Delta, B.C. and then be loaded onto tankers bound for global markets.<\/p>\n
The Pathways Project is opposed by environmental groups, a coalition of Indigenous communities and some nearby farmers who say they are concerned about increased oilsands production and the impacts the project will have on the environment.<\/p>\n
Several First Nations have applied for a judicial review after they said in February they were not properly consulted on the project by Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Janetta McKenzie, director of oil and gas at the Pembina Institute, a clean-energy think tank, said she is skeptical Pathways will curb long-term oilsands emissions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the West Coast pipeline and several other pipeline proposals or expansions that have been put on the table \u2026 we\u2019re just likely to see oilsands emissions go up,\u201d she told CBC News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-801617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}