VANCOUVER – Matt Horne, climate change program director at the Pembina Institute, made the following comments in response to the British Columbia NDP’s promise to broaden the provincial carbon tax, if elected:
“The B.C. NDP’s commitment to broaden the carbon tax is an important step in making the carbon tax more fair and effective. This policy would close a significant loophole that currently gives the oil and gas sector a free pass on $100 million of the carbon tax they should be paying.
“The carbon tax, as it is now, does not apply to carbon dioxide and methane vented from gas processing plants and pipelines, which account for about five per cent of B.C.’s carbon pollution. Broadening the tax would help make the business case for gas companies to capture or reduce those sources of pollution.
“It is disappointing that a rate increase is not included in the NDP’s fiscal plan, because continued increases are a must if the province is going to meet its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. This is a conversation that the next provincial government should be prepared to have with British Columbians.”
[30]
Contact:
Matt Horne
Climate Change Program Director
778-235-1476
Background:
The B.C. NDP has proposed a plan to broaden the carbon tax to include vented greenhouse gas emissions from the province’s natural gas sector. These vented sources are not currently covered by the carbon tax, and they include carbon dioxide that is stripped from raw natural gas, as well as methane that is released from pipelines. Pound for pound, the comparative impact of methane emissions on climate change is over 20 times greater than carbon dioxideover a 100-year period.
The promise to include vented greenhouse gas emissions would increase the coverage of the carbon tax by about five per cent, covering 75 per cent of B.C.’s emissions. Based on data from the B.C. Ministry of Environment, if implemented last year, this increase in coverage would have raised an additional $100 million in revenue.
The impact on competiveness will be, at maximum, $0.07 per gigajoule of natural gas produced in B.C.
