Weakening of Industrial Carbon Price a Full Betrayal on Emissions Cap Promises, Alberta Pipeline MOU

Media Release: For Immediate Release, May 15th, 2026 – We are available for comment. Please see notes below contrary to comments made today in the announcement.

Today the Federal Government announced a delay in industrial carbon pricing [a result of the Alberta Pipeline MOU negotiations] that effectively guts the policy’s impact hurting green jobs and communities. It follows the gutting of the Clean Electricity Regulations yesterday.

“Giving oil companies a pass to pollute shows lack of understanding that our economy is entirely reliant on healthy intact ecosystems. Forests, oceans,  grasslands, wetlands and rivers are the real backbone of our economy. . Without these Life giving systems we will not be able to build the Canada we want for our children and grandchildren,” says Gretchen Fitzgerald, Executive Director at Sierra Club Canada.

“The path to cheaper energy bills  is to double down on wind, solar, and storage now. We want to see immediate investments in these sectors, which are primed to created thousands of jobs and energy security. At a time when fires are burning near Edmonton and people and communities across the country prepare for droughts and more wildfires, leadership at all levels should be joining hands to fight the fires of climate change, not pouring more fuel on the flames.”

In October of 2024 the survivors of wildfires, floods, and storms travelled to Ottawa to call on the Federal Government to implement an emissions cap on Canada’s biggest polluters: oil and gas corporations. Government leaders expressed, at the time, their commitment to the cap and their concern about climate change.

When the cap was scrapped as part of the Pipeline MOU with Alberta the public was assured that it was in exchange for meaningful industrial carbon pricing. The announcement today ends any chance of that being the case.

“This says government is not willing to stand up for Canadians and they can’t negotiate effective deals,” says Conor Curtis, Director of Communications at Sierra Club Canada. “It says that at the end of the day they’ll do what U.S. oil corporations tell them to do even if it means less green Canadian jobs and more community-destroying wildfires. It says that when they can’t get results they’ll ‘flood the zone’ to try to cover it up. It tells those who want chaos, far more than they want an actual pipeline, that they can get everything they want, without limit, if they keep getting louder – it emboldens them.”

“I saw government representatives tell some of the most climate-impacted that they cared about climate change. Anyone who cares about the ‘pragmatic good’ would not be scrapping green-jobs policies like industrial carbon pricing and cutting services that Canadians will need more than ever as climate impacts – like wildfires – get worse. If this is the Federal Government’s approach to one of the most catastrophic issues Canadian communities face, then it’s the ‘canary in the coal mine’ for doublespeak on other vital issues.”

With more wildfires around the corner, climate impacts even have insurers calling for more climate action.

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For interviews please contact: Media@SierraClub.CA

Additionally as reported elsewhere:

The International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol – the leading global energy economist – has in fact warned about the dangers expanding oil and gas projects given the rapid destruction of demand. See The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/24/global-oil-crisis-changed-fossil-fuel-industry-for-ever-iea-chief-fatih-birol

Demand for a new oil pipeline will not appear in desired Asian Markets due to this demand destruction.

‘Alberta released weaker methane regulation only 48 hours after closing a previous deal with Ottawa.’ – The Energy Mix: https://www.theenergymix.com/breaking-alberta-releases-weaker-methane-regs-48-hours-after-closing-deal-with-ottawa/

Ottawa-Alberta Deal Delays Carbon Price to 2040, Endangers Clean Economy Jobs: https://www.theenergymix.com/ottawa-alberta-deal-delays-carbon-price-to-2040-endangers-clean-economy-jobs/

See: “$130 per tonne by 2040 will decimate an industry that all in, across the entirety of the clean economy, is over $200 billion in GDP.” – Canada’s Clean50 founder and executive director Gavin Pitchford said

Carbon capture cannot achieve significant emissions reductions.

Natural gas is not necessary for baseload power for renewable energy and battery options are cheaper: https://nbmediacoop.org/2026/02/08/over-120-scientists-and-academics-say-no-to-tantramar-shale-gas-plant/

Climate impacts exhibit in Ottawa.