Carbon taxes on coal-fired power plants to affect only some of their emissions
OTTAWA — Coal-fired power plants in Canada will pay to keep polluting once the federal government imposes a carbon price but, like other heavy emitters in Canada, they won’t pay for every tonne of greenhouse gas they produce.
Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says the final regulations for the emission-pricing system for big industry are still in development but insists coal plants will pay a carbon price until national regulations force the plants out of existence by 2030.
“We’re absolutely committed to phasing out coal,” McKenna said Friday. “We’ve said that. We’re taking practical measures to do that.”
The government’s aim is by 2030 to ensure all of Canada’s 17 existing coal plants will either stop operating entirely, be converted to natural gas, or use technologies like carbon capture and storage to make their net greenhouse gas emissions virtually zero. However, Ottawa is still negotiating with provinces that have coal plants on how they will be phased out and whether they will be allowed to keep operating any of them by reducing equivalent emissions elsewhere.