"We need a carbon tax"—oil company CEO

MEG Energy Corp. is a Canadian oil company focused on in situ tar sands production. Its CEO, Derek Evans, claims the company intends to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The plan is to capture emissions from the production process and inject them into an underground reservoir, i.e. carbon capture and storage.

Evans believes that a higher carbon price would not only encourage more companies to fund such projects, but it would also create more awareness about the emissions problem. To that end, he said, "We need a carbon tax. It would be nice if we weren't sitting around arguing about it, but it seems to be a political football today." He isn't alone in his view. Shell Canada has said that future growth in carbon capture would require carbon taxes rising to about $100 a tonne.

These views aren't entirely altruistic. MEG is seeking Government support for its project. Shell's carbon capture Quest project (sold to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. in 2017), which cost about $1.35 billion, received $745 million from the Alberta government and $120 million from Ottawa.

Of course, reducing the emissions from production is a minor part of the problem. Only about seven per cent of the emissions from a barrel of oil come from the production end, so that's the maximum reduction even if producers could reduce their emissions to zero. The overarching problem is the 80 per cent of the emissions that are produced when the barrel is burned. But, hey, every little bit helps.

The irony of oil execs promoting a carbon tax is not only that it contradicts Conservatives' opposition, but the execs are suggesting that it's necessary for carbon capture and storage, one of the conservatives' big hopes for dealing with global warming. "Technology not taxes" as Andrew Scheer puts it. The execs are insisting it's both technology and taxes ... and big government handouts to boot.