Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and her need to come to a consensus on the province’s carbon neutrality plan. .“And that will require us to have some conversations about three areas that I don’t think we have agreement on yet, but I hope to,” said Smith at a Friday press conference. .Smith said the first area is establishing a working group to talk about how Alberta might be able to achieve a net-zero power grid. She called Trudeau’s emissions plan “not possible by 2035, which is the federal target." .The premier went on to say the requirement to reduce emissions by 42% by 2030 would be a production cap. She said she would not support an emissions cap. .“And we know that the government negotiated Article Six into the Paris Climate Accord, which should allow for us to get a credit here for reducing emissions abroad,” she said. .“And we would like to work with our partner in the British Columbia government in order to be able to reduce emissions and get credit for LNG [liqueified natural gas] exports.” .Trudeau followed up by saying he was glad to be sitting down with Smith about creating jobs and growing Alberta’s economy. .“That’s a tremendous benefit not just to people here in Alberta, not just for the country’s economy as well, but also in generating solutions for the world,” said Trudeau. .“Alberta has long been an extraordinarily innovative leader in providing energy to the continent and indeed the world.” .Trudeau admitted Alberta has contributed innovations in areas such as hydrogen, petrochemicals, and solar power. He said he looks forward to working together. .One of the areas he said he looks forward to is this working group. The working group will allow the Canadian and Alberta governments to look at what their experts are saying and find some common ground. .Trudeau concluded by saying there are “lots of things to work through, but I can say this has been a really positive, constructive working relationship between our ministers and our folks from the very beginning.” .The Alberta United Conservative Party said in May it was prepared to challenge the Canadian government over commitments to decarbonize Alberta’s electricity grid to net zero by 2035..READ MORE: UCP threatens to challenge Ottawa on net-zero electricity timeline.Alberta Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean and Environment and Protected Areas Minister Rebecca Schulz said a UCP government would stick to international commitments to have it done by 2050 and asserted the Canadian government is overstepping its jurisdiction in forcing provinces to do it sooner. .Jean said a UCP government would be prepared to take legal action if the Canadian government took punitive measures to force the issue.
