Canada's Alberta should strengthen environmental rules -leader

CALGARY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The Canadian oil-producing
province of Alberta wants to strengthen its environmental
regulations and bend the curve on its rapidly-rising greenhouse
gas emissions, Premier Rachel Notley said in a radio interview
broadcast on Tuesday.
Notley said her government is proceeding with promises to
review royalty rates paid by the oil and gas industry and
improve its climate change policies. Her left-leaning New
Democrats were elected in May, ending 44 years of Conservative
rule in the western Canadian province.
Alberta's oil sands, vast deposits of tar-like bitumen, are
the world's third-largest crude reserves, but also carry some of
the highest costs globally because of the scale of projects and
energy-intensive production methods.
The federal environment department has estimated that the
oil sands industry is Canada's fastest growing source of
heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, making it difficult for
the country to meet Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
international climate change commitments.
Notley told CBC radio that Alberta's industry was suffering
globally in part because people did not believe it was
adequately protecting the environment. Her government, which
raised the cost of greenhouse gas emissions for large industrial
plants in June, is now waiting for an expert panel to advise it
on a comprehensive climate change strategy.
She said the end result would likely be somewhere between
the demands of industry and environmentalists.
"Are we going to immediately get to the same standards that
everyone else is at? Probably not," she told the CBC. "But what
we need to do is put together a credible, science-based plan
that will sustain the review of experts, that bends the curve
and sets Alberta on the right path."
She said her government recognized it should not "pile on"
with changes when oil and gas companies are struggling due to
the plunge in global crude prices that have prompted thousands
of layoffs.
But she said the NDP was less dependent on the industry for
political support than the Conservatives were, and her
government intended to ensure that Albertans are getting their
fair share of resources at the end of a royalty payments review,
expected to conclude in December.
Notley's government has also pledged to phase out coal-fired
electricity generation, and has said it would introduce new
plans to promote energy efficiency and more renewable energy.