Alberta Fact Check: Are carbon taxes pricing Alberta out of the energy business?
The Liberal government in Ottawa continues to hinder Alberta's energy industry.
A new report from the Fraser Institute is making waves because the numbers are eye-popping.
According to the study, Alberta's industrial carbon tax and carbon-capture requirements could increase production costs by:
- 25.6% for conventional oil
- 19.6% for oil sands projects
- 39.1% for natural gas
- 35.9% for electricity generation
Those figures aren't made up. They come directly from the Fraser Institute's report, Impact of Carbon Policies on Competitiveness in Oil, Natural Gas, and Electric Power.
The study compares Alberta's policies to major U.S. energy competitors like Texas and New Mexico and reaches a simple conclusion: American producers don't face the same carbon costs, giving them a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting investment and building new projects.
At the very moment Ottawa says it wants Canada to become an "energy superpower," Alberta producers are being asked to pay a carbon price that keeps rising and are now being told that a new West Coast pipeline should go hand-in-hand with a multibillion-dollar carbon-capture project.
Meanwhile, there is no equivalent federal carbon-pricing regime in the United States.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Editor-in-Chief, Alberta Bureau Chief, member of the board of directors, and host of The Gunn Show at Rebel News. Sheila also serves as President of the Independent Press Gallery of Canada. A mother of three and longtime conservative activist, Sheila is the author of bestselling books, including her most recent release, Independence Blueprint: What Alberta Can Learn From Quebec.
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COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-06-26 17:13:16 -0400Hog-tying the Alberta oil and gas industry is a Liberal tradition, starting with PET. Alberta didn’t express its “gratitude” to him in the 1972 election, voted largely for the Progressive Conservatives and has been punished for exercising its electoral choice ever since. We saw that when PET and Peter Lougheed finally agreed on the price of Alberta oil and, shortly afterward, the province was “rewarded” with the NEP.
