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New Alberta Premier Promises to Defend Provincial Control Over Oil & Gas

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Alberta and Saskatchewan have both shown more determined resistance to federal environmental policy, spreading uncertainty about the future of climate policy, which threatens to slow Canada’s energy transition.

Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta issued a warning to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on her first day in office, promising to use the courts to keep Ottawa out of provincial jurisdictions and implying that she might try to counter Trudeau’s policies at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Smith also said that her government will not back away from involving Ottawa in further fights over perceived incursions into provincial jurisdiction. She also reiterated her campaign promise to fight a legal challenge of the federal carbon tax.

“I feel like there is a mandate to get tough with Ottawa,” said Danielle Smith at a press conference. “I know it’ll be a bit of change because we’ve acted like a subordinate level of government, but I feel that when you are going to change a relationship, you should give notice.”

Smith’s remarks came only a few hours after Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe released a new study criticizing the economic cost of federal climate policies and pledged to defend the Prairie province’s economic autonomy, a clear signal that Moe, like Smith, is prepared to battle Ottawa over natural resources.

Smith criticized the federal Liberals for their incapacity to negotiate an LNG export deal with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his August trip.

“I do not trust that our message will get out by relying on them to deliver that message,” she told reporters. “We need to deliver it ourselves.”

Next month, Alberta will be sending a team to the COP27 conference in Egypt to discuss the oil and gas industry’s plans to implement carbon capture and storage technology to cut emissions, said Smith. Alberta’s energy sector is at risk of being “transitioned out,” according to Smith, who argued that the province should have a voice in decision-making.

The new premier said: “If they’re not going to be constructive in helping us to meet with the German chancellor so we can get an LNG deal, or develop economic corridors with our neighbours so that we can get our products to market, we’re going to have to take the lead on doing that ourselves.”

Original source material for this article taken from here

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Written by Olivia Woods

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