Category: Environmental Page 35 of 59

The SGER Amendments and the New Treatment of Cogeneration

On July 14, 2015

In Climate Change, Energy, Environmental

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The SGER Amendments and the New Treatment of Cogeneration

Regulation Commented On: Specified Gas Emitters Amendment Regulation, Alta Reg 104/2015

In a previous post I reported on the Minister’s speech announcing a two-step procedure for developing a new climate change policy for Alberta. The first step involved changes to two of the key variables in the current Specified Gas Emitter Regulation (SGER), Alta Reg 139/2007 while the second step is the more comprehensive review to be conducted by Dr Andrew Leach to assess the full range of options for the management of greenhouse gas emissions in the province. At the time I wrote that post I had not examined the details of the amendments to the SGER to see what other changes (if any) were being proposed. This post picks up where the last left off.

Supreme Court: EPA Should Have Considered Cost When Deciding Whether Mercury Limits for Power Plants Were Appropriate

By James Coleman

On July 7, 2015

In Energy, Environmental

By: James Coleman

PDF Version: Supreme Court: EPA Should Have Considered Cost When Deciding Whether Mercury Limits for Power Plants Were Appropriate

Case Commented On: United States Supreme Court, Michigan v United States Environmental Protection Agency (June 29, 2015)

On Monday the United States Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) improperly refused to consider costs when determining whether it was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate mercury emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act. Ultimately, the EPA may be able to keep the same rules after going back and explaining why the cost of the regulations is justified in the circumstances. But the decision is an important victory for advocates of cost-benefit analysis and those who think environmental agencies should pay more attention to the costs of regulation.

Section 112 of the Clean Air Act directs the EPA to regulate hazardous air pollutants from power plants if it finds “regulation is appropriate and necessary” 42 U.S.C. §7412. The EPA said that regulation was “appropriate and necessary” even without considering costs because 1) power plant emissions posed risks to human health and the environment that were not eliminated by other provisions of the Clean Air Act and 2) there were controls available to reduce those dangerous emissions. So there was no need for the EPA to consider costs to make its initial decision to regulate, but it promised to consider costs when adopting the actual final regulations for power plants.

Province of Alberta Announces a Two-Step Process for Developing a New Climate Change Policy

By Nigel Bankes

On June 26, 2015

In Carbon Capture and Storage, Climate Change, Energy, Environmental

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: Province of Alberta Announces a Two-Step Process for Developing a New Climate Change Policy

Matter Commented On: Minister Shannon Phillips’ Press Conference on Alberta’s climate change strategy, June 25, 2015

A central element of Alberta’s climate change strategy is the Specified Gas Emitter Regulation (SGER), Alta Reg 139/2007. The SGER imposes greenhouse gas emissions intensity reduction obligations (ultimately 12%) on regulated emitters (facilities that emit in excess of 100,000 tonnes of CO_2e per year). A facility may achieve compliance in one of four ways: (1) meeting its target by producing its product with lower carbon inputs, (2) Alberta based offset credits (emission reductions over a business as usual scenario achieved by a non-regulated entity in accordance with an approved protocol), (3) emission performance credits (credits achieved by a regulated facility which beats its compliance target), or, (4) contribution of $15 per tonne (for excess emissions over the compliance target) to the Climate Change and Emission Management Fund (the so-called compliance price).

The Social Licence to Operate: Mind the Gap

By Nigel Bankes

On June 24, 2015

In Energy, Environmental, Rule of Law

By: Nigel Bankes

PDF Version: The Social Licence to Operate: Mind the Gap

This post is based on an invited presentation that I gave at the Canadian Energy Law Forum on May 14, 2015 in Lake Louise. I began my remarks by looking at the three elements of the social licence to operate and then offered a summary of a lecture given by Rowland Harrison at the University of Alberta on March 10, 2015 from his position as the TransCanada Chair in Administrative and Regulatory Law, entitled “Social Licence to Operate: The Good, the Bad and the Ominous.” Mr. Harrison is a former member of the National Energy Board. I concluded my remarks by reflecting on four issues: (1) the normative context for thinking about the social licence to operate, (2) why it is that industry itself uses the term “social licence to operate”, (3) the need to narrow the gap between the legal licence and the idea of the social licence, and (4) the implications of allowing the social licence to operate as a veto.

Assessing Canada’s Habitat/Fisheries Protection Regime: A Near Total Abdication of Responsibility?

By Martin Olszynski

On May 15, 2015

In Environmental, Fisheries Regulation

By: Martin Olszynski and Alex Grigg

PDF Version: Assessing Canada’s Habitat/Fisheries Protection Regime: A Near Total Abdication of Responsibility?

Legislation Commented On: Section 35 of the Fisheries Act, RSC 1985 c F-14, as amended by the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act SC 2012, c 19

Roughly three years ago (on June 29, 2012), Bill C-38, the omnibus budget bill also known as the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, received royal assent. As most ABlawg readers will surely know, Bill C-38 fundamentally changed some of Canada’s most important environmental laws. Among these were changes to the Fisheries Act and a new regime for the protection of fish habitat in particular. Section 35 of the Act, which used to prohibit any work or undertaking that resulted in the “harmful alteration or disruption, or the destruction” (HADD) of fish habitat, was amended to prohibit works, undertakings and activities that result in “serious harm to fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery,” serious harm being defined as “the death of fish or any permanent alteration to, or destruction of, fish habitat” (DPAD). At the time of Bill C-38’s passage, this wording was widely panned as vague, confusing and bound to reduce the scope of protection for fish habitat (see here, here, here, here and our own professor emeritus Arlene Kwasniak here). This summer – and with a view towards a Fisheries Act panel at the Journal of Environmental Law and Practice’s 5^th conference in Kananaskis in June – we are conducting research to assess the merits of this new regime. This blog sets out our approach and some preliminary findings. Long story short, it appears that the federal government has all but abdicated its role in protecting fish habitat in Canada.