Heavy on hydrogen: A look at the Conservative platform on energy and climate change

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CALGARY — Unlike past iterations of the Conservative Party of Canada’s climate change plan, the version unveiled Monday has teeth.

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Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Party unveiled its full platform at the beginning of Canada’s federal election campaign this week and it contained multiple promises on how the party would tackle climate change and protect the environment.

The Conservatives have pledged to protect up to 25 per cent of the country’s surface area and its water by banning raw sewage dumping in waterways by municipalities and cruise ships. They would study a carbon border adjustment tariff to tax goods made in jurisdictions without carbon taxes and by taxing “frequent flyers” and buyers of gasoline-burning luxury cars while encouraging more electric car purchases.

The issues where the Conservatives could potentially have the biggest impact on climate and the environment are outlined below. The Financial Post will highlight the policy points from each of the major parties that have a chance at forming government and how they would affect the energy and power industries in Canada during the election campaign.

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#1 Plastics as a wedge issue

The Conservative platform specifically goes after the Liberal government on the issue of plastic waste by blasting the government’s decision to label plastic as “toxic,” which had ignited a sharp disagreement between the federal government and Alberta, which has tried to encourage additional petrochemical investments.

The Liberals had previously said that labelling products as toxic is necessary to ensure they’re managed to prevent those products being discarded into the environment. The Conservatives say they would ban the export of plastics from Canada, unless the exporter could show the products would be recycled. They would also try to encourage more “value recovery from plastics” within Canada, including by turning plastic waste into chemicals.

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#2 A fuel standard by a different name

The Liberal government’s Clean Fuel Standard was opposed by integrated oil companies with refining operations in Canada, which said the policy could result in refinery shutdowns in Canada.

The Conservative’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard promises to “finalize and improve” the regulations in the Clean Fuel Standard to “reduce carbon emissions from every litre of gasoline” burned in Canada. Based on British Columbia’s existing fuel standard, the Conservatives aim to achieve a 20 per cent reduction in carbon intensity for fuel, while allowing the agricultural and forestry sector to earn land-based credits “by improving the carbon sequestration of agricultural lands and managed forests.”

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#3 Money for carbon capture

The Conservatives are pledging to invest $5 billion in carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). The platform promises also promises a tax credit “to rapidly accelerate the deployment of CCUS technology in the energy sector and in important industries that have few alternatives to bring fossil fuels, like fertilizer and chemical production.”

The oil and gas industry has been asking for direct assistance on CCUS investments after receiving assurances there would be tax incentives for investing in the CO2-limiting technology.

#4 More renewable natural gas

The Conservative election platform mentions methane twice and both times in relation to capturing methane emissions from landfills and farms and using it as renewable natural gas. The party says it would introduce a renewable natural gas mandate requiring 15 per cent of all downstream natural gas consumption to be renewable by 2030.

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Like the low-carbon fuel standard, the party’s plan for a renewable natural gas mandate is based on a target already in place in British Columbia.

#5 Heavy on hydrogen

In many cases, Canada’s various provincial electric grids are better connected with the states down south than they are with their neighbouring provinces. The Conservative platform promises a clean energy strategy that would boost connections between the provinces, increase the use of mass storage and encourage more nuclear, hydrogen and renewable power.

Hydrogen is a major talking point in the platform, garnering 17 mentions in the document, and a key part of the party’s clean energy strategy. In addition, or possibly in conjunction, the Conservative platform also describes a “hydrogen energy strategy that rapidly increases the use of hydrogen — especially green hydrogen — in Canada and builds our export capacity.”

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: geoffreymorgan

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