Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz issued the following statement on the federal National Inventory Report on greenhouse gas emissions:
"As the National Inventory Report shows, Alberta's per-barrel emissions are in decline while energy demand continues to rise. In fact, even as oil and gas production increased in our province, our total emissions went down.
"This shows that the Alberta approach is working. Emissions are declining in oil and gas, and we're seeing major investments in hydrogen, nuclear, geothermal, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), and other innovative technologies needed for the future.
"We are a global leader in responsible energy development and could be doing even more if the federal government came to the table. We saw this on May 1, when Alberta's Capital Power had to stop its Genesee carbon capture and storage project because the project wasn't economically feasible due to lack of support from Ottawa. The blame for this lies entirely at the Prime Minister's feet.
"Ottawa has broken its promise to provide key CCUS investment tax credits and its promise to provide credits to help spur hydrogen, electricity and even more clean technology projects. They've also broken their promise to expand the Canada Growth Fund's range of Carbon Contracts for Difference. For other provinces, the federal government can, and has, moved quickly to support emissions reduction projects. However, when it comes to Alberta, we get only lip service, delays and bad policy creating massive investment uncertainty.
"Alberta is part of the solution, not the problem. We have the expertise and innovation necessary to meet the rising global energy demands. Only Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault would choose to increase energy production in high-polluting countries like China, Russia and India to meet global demands while devastating our economy and preventing jobs for Canadians.
"Alberta is reducing emissions, and we will achieve a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 by working with industry and pursuing an approach of innovation and technologies, not punitive rules and regulations."
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