Pembina Institute submitted comments and recommendations to the Alberta Energy Regulator, regarding its draft Directive 060: Upstream Petroleum Industry Flaring, Incinerating, and Venting. The Directive was revised following the introduction of the Government of Alberta's Red Tape Reduction Statutes Amendment Act, 2024.
A summary of Pembina Institute's comments is as follows:
- Pembina Institute acknowledges that the AER's approach to the streamlining process did not diminish the strength or substance of the regulation.
- The AER, through this exercise, has made it easier for oil and gas companies to use proven measurement technologies to comply with leak detection and repair requirements.
- We appreciate the need to create permissions to engage in controlled release testing, within established guardrails, to assess the capabilities of new technologies.
- The existing regulation does not represent current regulatory best practice, and we encourage the AER to engage in further regulatory development to strengthen its provincial regulations to achieve a 75-80% reduction of oil and gas methane emissions from 2014 levels. Pembina Institute welcomes opportunities to engage with the AER on this regulatory development.
