Ottawa issues more flexible methane regulations for energy sector by The Logic, Dec 16, 2025
@joanbaxter.bsky.social:
“Leeway”… in other words not really regulations at all. One of the oil and gas companies that didn’t like the “prescriptive” methane rules was MEG Energy. Who used to be on the MEG board? Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Tim Hodgson.
Ottawa toughens methane regulations — but Alberta gets five extra years by National Observer, Dec 17, 2025
“Hungarian Devil” in Marianna Gartner’s painting, The Hunter
Canada Offers Energy Firms More Leeway in Cutting Methane by Brian Platt, December 16, 2025, Bloomberg
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government published final rules on methane reduction that give the oil and gas sector more flexibility in how to comply.
The methane regulations were developed under Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, with the aim of eliminating venting and routine flaring, which can release large amounts of the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere. When they were announced in 2023, they prompted a backlash from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, whose province is home to most of Canada’s oil production.
Ottawa to announce plan to slash methane pollution from fossil fuel production, landfills, Sources tell CBC News that new regulations were delayed since March by David Thurton, CBC News, Dec 16, 2025
The Carney government is making good on a promise to help tackle one of the most potent forms of climate pollution, as it announces new measures to address methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
CBC News obtained an early copy of the announcement that Environment, Climate Change and Nature Minister Julie Dabrusin is expected to deliver in Metro Vancouver Tuesday afternoon.
It contains significant emission reductions but offers more leeway to oil and gas producers to comply after many complained the original proposal was too strict.
Which proves it was the right requirement! Polluters never complain about easy useless non pollution reducing measures like Carney’s!
It also addresses methane released by landfills, which are responsible for a smaller portion of emissions.
Since becoming prime minister, Mark Carney has surprised some environmentalists not just environmentalists. I am not an environmentalist, I am a scientist and every fucking thing Carney has so far done, including these fake methane mitigations, have horrified meby stripping away key planks of Canada’s climate policy and backing a potential pipeline to the Pacific coast.and much worse, pimping what he knows are lies about carbon capture and boasting about him decarbonizing Alberta’s hideous tarsands, which is impossible.
The previous Liberal government released draft regulations to reduce methane emissions from fossil fuel sites and landfills, but they had not been put into effect.
Tuesday’s announcement is the new government’s first where it is adding a climate policy, instead of removing one.
However, sources tell CBC News that the government had been ready to roll out new methane regulations as early as nine months ago.
Dabrusin did not deny the methane regulations were delayed and suggested they were ready to be released at a time when Liberals were electing a new leader and Canadians were about to go to the polls.
CBC News is not naming the sources because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
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Methane pollution mostly comes from fossil fuel extraction and production, often through hydraulic fracturing (which MUST be criminalized, not promoted by promoting LNG like Carney is doing, and intentional andaccidental leaks or intentional releases. Some facilities burn off excess natural gas — which has methane as its primary component — through a practice known as flaring instead of capturing the valuable fuel.And companies intentionally vent it, just to appease greed.
But the climate-warming impact of releasing methane into the atmosphere is enormous. Its global warming potential is more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide.
The new regulations ban those releases, also known as “venting,” and “establishes an inspection schedule to find leaks and repair them,” according to an advance copy of the announcement CBC News obtained.WTF? So, companies will find their leaks (they fucking know where they are, notably via frac’ing), and get how many decades to fix them? Companies ignore leaks, all the time, and industry’s self regulator and our petro polluted politicos, of which Carney is the most filthy so far, let them.
But operators have another compliance option, which some may find controversial because it could give industry players some leeway. Operators can design their own approaches, providing a facility meets “methane intensity thresholds” that are on par with standards from “leading international voluntary certification programs.”
It’s unclear from the details CBC News viewed what those standards are.
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Fossil fuel companies, like MEG Energy, argued the Trudeau government’s proposed regulations were “excessively prescriptive” and called for more flexibility.ya, because they do not want to control their fucking pollution, that costs money they do not want to spend.
The government states its analysis shows these new regulations are expected to reduce oil and gas production growth by an estimated 0.2 per cent between 2025 and 2035. But in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reductions, the policy is expected to slash 304 million tonnes.Fucking bullshit. Companies make their best profits by raping and polluting. they are not going to change under a weak con man like Carney.
Health impacts of natural gas leaks
Aside from its planet warming impacts, methane is harmless to humans.
FFS!!! Methane can and has killed! It’s an asphyxiant and even Alberta Health has secretly written that it harms health in non killer concentrations.
But natural gas also contains hazardous compounds like ethane, propane and butane.And much more health harming, it now contains toxic frac chemicals and is radioactive, thanks to fucking frac’ers.
“Those are complex chemicals that have been implicated in such things as cancers in humans,” said Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency physician in Calgary who works with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
The government says the regulations are “expected to result in fewer premature deaths, reduce symptoms among asthmatics and prevent crop losses due to ozone damage.”
Aside from cleaner air, conserving natural gas instead of wasting it could provide enough fuel to heat over 11 million Canadian homes for a year, according to government estimates.
The federal government is also releasing new measures for landfills.
Methane from food, paper and other organic waste in garbage dumps will now, in some cases, have to be monitored and captured.
Between 2026 and 2040, the landfill regulations are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 100 million tonnes.
Climate targets in question
According to an analysis by the Canadian Climate Institute Canada, won’t meet its 2030 climate targets and it would be lucky if it eliminates half the pollution it pledged to achieve. The analysis cited the government’s decision to roll back some Trudeau-era environmental regulations.
“I mean it’s really inexplicable. Here we have a methane pollution problem,” said Thomas Green, the senior manager of climate solutions at the David Suzuki Foundation, about the government’s decision to delay rolling out the new methane rules.
WATCH | Environmentalists say this footage shows methane pollution in Saskatchewan:
Invisible methane pollution caught on camera
Duration 1:02The David Suzuki Foundation says this footage shows invisible methane pollution leaking out of a Saskatchewan oil and gas facility in June 2025. The footage was recorded using a FLIR infrared camera.
The foundation has surveyed oil and gas sites in Alberta and Saskatchewan with the help of a specialized camera that can detect methane emissions, which are invisible to the naked eye.
Visiting the same locations in both 2022 and 2025, the environmental group said it found the problem has gotten worse.
“In some cases, we see large volumes moving across the scene and across the landscape and heading towards farms or communities, and that’s very concerning for us given, you know, how the methane brings with it other volatile organic compounds that have health impacts,” Green said.
Corrections
- A previous version of this story said Canada is on track to achieve its climate targets. In fact, projections data shows it is not. Dec 16, 2025 9:28 AM CST