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Alberta rolled out a ‘Natural Gas Vision and Strategy’ plan Tuesday as part of the overarching Alberta Recovery Plan that aims to move the province away from the soul-crushing volatility of crude oil prices and the whims of Middle Eastern and Russian strongmen.
The new gas strategy would zoom in on the flavour-of-the-month hydrogen sector, apart from petrochemicals, manufacturing, liquefied natural gas and plastic recycling.
“Alberta’s 300-year supply of affordable natural gas provides significant opportunity to attract investment and job creators back to the province, building back our economy stronger than ever,” Dale Nally, Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity, said in a statement.
The program envisions the province emerging as a hydrogen-exporting powerhouse by 2040, and among the world’s top ten petrochemicals producers. The province hopes the petrochemicals sector will blossom and grow by more than $30-billion by 2030, create 90,000 direct and indirect jobs and generate $10-billion in income and personal tax revenue for Edmonton.
The natural gas sector could also see “two or three additional” large-scale liquefied natural gas export plants that would help Asian customers wean off their coal-fired electricity addiction.
While Pembina Institute lauded Alberta’s efforts to invest in hydrogen, the energy think-tank noted that the policy statement fell short on other fronts.
“As the source of a third of Canada’s emissions, Alberta must acknowledge the need to decarbonize in alignment with the country’s net-zero emissions commitment by 2050. Ignoring the climate imperative works against Alberta’s ambition to be an energy supplier of choice in a world committed to a safe climate,” Chris Severson-Baker, Alberta Regional Director at the Pembina Institute, said in a statement.
The province is also eyeing the “plastics circular economy”, noting that about 95 per cent of plastic packaging — valued at as much as $150 billion — “is disposed of after a single use, meaning there is a significant opportunity for plastics producers to recapture that value.”
The move to expand plastics could set the province up for a showdown with the Liberal government, which reiterated its promise to ban single-use plastics in the Throne Speech on September 23.
In 2019, the Liberal government had pledged to “ban harmful single-use plastics as early as 2021 (such as plastic bags, straws, cutlery, plates, and stir sticks) where supported by scientific evidence and warranted, and take other steps to reduce pollution from plastic products and packaging.”
While policymakers have been distracted by COVID-19 this year, the latest signal in the Throne Speech suggests Ottawa might come back to that file soon, much to the chagrin of Alberta.
Last year, Premier Jason Kenney said Alberta will not follow other provinces in banning single-use plastic bags at store checkouts.
The petchem industry is also concerned about the potential federal move on single-use plastics, with advocacy group Chemistry Industry Association of Canada noting that the government’s intention to ban single-use plastics “is a step backwards” in the fight against plastic waste.
“Rather than pursuing this go-it-alone policy, Canada should commit to a reimagination of recycling and repurposing of plastics in collaboration with the provinces,” the industry said in a statement. “What is needed to truly address this issue is purposeful circular economy legislation that sets recycled content standards, national performance requirements, extended producer responsibility, and defines the life-cycle assessment of products.
